Grievance Debate

Youth Unemployment

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:06): I rise today to speak about a very important issue in both my community and South Australia in general. We are currently in the midst of a youth unemployment crisis in South Australia. In January this year, South Australia's trend unemployment rate was 6.7 per cent. That is the highest in the country and, as we know, South Australia has been at the bottom of the ladder for more than two years, thanks to this state Labor government. Our statewide youth unemployment rate is more than double that figure. It is at 16.9 per cent, meaning that 16.9 per cent of 15 to 24 year olds are currently unemployed in our state. Youth unemployment gets worse when you look across the regions, with 19.3 per cent of 15 to 24 year olds unemployed in Adelaide's north.

The rate of underemployment in South Australia is 9.8 per cent, the highest on the mainland. Underemployment refers to people aged 15 and over who want and are available for more hours of work than they currently have. They include people who are employed part-time or who want to work more hours and are available to work more hours, or persons employed full-time who work part-time hours for economic reasons, such as insufficient work being available. That is right: the work is not there and South Australians want to work more.

The underutilisation rate is another measure from ABS stats. Again, South Australia is the highest on the mainland, as we were with underemployment. Our underutilisation rate is 16.7 per cent. Underutilisation includes a wider group of people than the unemployed, such as people who are part-time workers who are willing and available to work more hours and people who are willing and available to work but have become discouraged and stopped looking for work. According to those three measures, we have the worst youth unemployment rate in the nation and the highest underutilisation rate and underemployment rate on the mainland. This is really hurtful to all South Australians, and it has had a great impact in my community and right across the state.

Just recently, we saw Coca-Cola lose 190 jobs, and that was another major setback for South Australians. Caroma lost 14, and we now find out that the railway company Pacific National has moved 40 jobs out of South Australia. Forty South Australians have lost their jobs with Pacific National and they have gone interstate. The list of industries and businesses leaving South Australia just keeps getting longer and longer. We know that Holden will close later this year in October, and the fallout from that will come in 2019. The future does not look rosy for South Australia, and all this is after 15 years of a state Labor government in South Australia.

This week, we hear about a solution that the Premier is putting forward, and it is quite an amazing solution. His big plans are to create public sector jobs by getting people in the public sector to give up some of their hours, to actually go part-time and create part-time jobs for people coming in. It is just incongruous.

We support the public sector and the employees, who do a marvellous job and who work hard. We know how beneficial that is for South Australia. But this idea of the Premier is to actually take these people, reduce their hours and then give a handful of hours to young South Australians—this is a policy designed for people 17 to 30 years of age. What we are going to see here is South Australians saying, 'I can stay in South Australia and just get a part-time job in the Public Service or I can go interstate and try to find work elsewhere.'

The Premier has not looked to support businesses. This government is not growing jobs in our state. They are not helping industry. They are not helping businesses grow jobs. By contrast, we have already said that we will return ESL remissions to South Australians. That is a big help to South Australian businesses and to South Australian families. It is $90 million a year—$360 million over four years—back in the pockets of South Australians and back in the pockets of businesses so they can employ more people in sustainable jobs for the future.

We also have our council rate capping policy, which is again putting money back in the pockets of South Australians and making sure that this money can be spent elsewhere. There is also Globe Link, a great project which our party has put forward which will grow opportunities in South Australia, grow jobs and give a future to our young people. We need the ability to move goods and services through South Australia far more easily and get them to export markets and to grow into export markets.

As the leader said, we are not going to get rich selling lattes to ourselves. Whilst those on the other side think that is how it is going to happen, South Australians know that it is not. They are awake to what this Labor government is doing. They are not delivering opportunities for South Australians and that is what young people are looking for. We have to get off the bottom of the ladder when it comes to youth unemployment.