ABBOTT GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES LATEST ATTACK ON YOUNG PEOPLE

Media Release

Jenny Macklin MP.

Shadow Minister for Families and Payments
 Shadow Minister for Disability Reform

28 May , 2015

Scott Morrison continues the Abbott Government’s attack on young people today with the introduction of legislation that will leave jobseekers under 25 with nothing to live on for one month.

Scott Morrison is also pressing ahead with changes to the eligibility age for Newstart, pushing jobseekers who are between the ages of 22 and 24 onto the lower Youth Allowance.

This is a cut of at least $48 a week, or almost $2,500 a year. 

The Abbott Government is knowingly pushing young people into poverty.

These Bills have the potential to confine young people to an endless cycle of no income support at all, pushing many young jobseekers into poverty, crisis and homelessness. 

Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have learnt nothing from last year’s Budget.

This Budget is just as unfair as the last when it comes to young jobseekers.

With unemployment forecast to peak at 6.5 per cent and staying higher longer than estimated, this type of punitive measure is patently unfair, and bad for the economy. 

Jobseekers need support to find a job, not savage attacks that make it harder for them to find work.

Labor will oppose Tony Abbott’s latest cut, just as we opposed last year’s attempt to leave young jobseekers with nothing to live on for six months.

Whether for one month or six, Labor will not support a measure which pushes young people into poverty and hardship.

Australians don’t want a country which leaves young people with nothing to live on. This legislation represents an abandonment of young people by their Government. 

It reflects the gross unfairness at the heart of this Government’s Budget. 

The Parliament has rejected this measure once. It should now be scrapped entirely.