J> A U) STALIA.
E 0 E PROOF ONLYPRIME MINISTER
INTERVIEW WITH DEREK 6ALLANTYNE ( 3AW) 5 December 1985
B. Priority One off and running, is it going to have some really
concrete worth when it's all over and done with?
U. There's no question about that, Priority One is not going to be over
and done With, this is not something that we've just conceived for
IYY 1985. It is a continuing program, which emphasises as it says
the priority which this Gov't gives to the issues of youth. And it
has a number of elements, perhaps the most significant in a sense is
the new concept of traineeships which introduces a quite revolutionary
new idea of vocational training in this country, Derek, which is
directed towards those young people who have been leaving the
education system early. If they get employment they're going into
dead end jobs with no training provided. Now we'll be moving to
have a situation where by 1988 we'll have 75,000 of these traineeships
which will mean that young people will go in for jobs and not simply
do the particular jobs that they are recruited for but on the job
will get training for a wider range of responsibilities and for a
quarter of the year will be offered full time training in TAFE
institutions or their equivalent. So that we will gradually change
the situation where so many of our young people have moved into dead
end positions, where the community has ceased it's obligations to them
in: terms of education and training and their continuation of the"
responsibility of the community so that we will gradually create a
strongeri more skill based young workforce which will be good for
the Australian economy but most importantly will be good for young
people themselves. Also aspart of Priority-One we're undertaking a
rationalisation of youth income support payments so'that in two or
three years we will have eliminated the existing financiallidincentives
that has built over the years for people to go on unemployment
benefits rather than to remain in education On education allowances.
And we will also be consolidating a number of youth training programs,
which will be community based programs, and also giving added emphasis
within the CES to have youth centres within the CES so that young
people when they leave school and are looking at what is available to
them in the workforce and in terms of training opportunities will
have a centralised fooAs within the CES centres to be able to be
informed of services available to them. In all these ways we can see
that this is a continuing program, already the evidence is that the
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concept is being warmly embraced by the young people themselves and
by the community. ' for youth
B. Now Mr. Hawke there were a number of temporary job schemes~ in the
past, but you seem to be moving away from those, because they did
not offer in the long term any real hope for the young?
H. When we came to Government we inherited a situation where there was
a whole hotch-potch of unrelated unco-ordinated programs in the
area of temporary job schemes, training programs. What we've done
as a result of having the Kirby inquiry and the OECD group coming
here is toh then making a series of decisions which co-ordinate the
programs. And there will--be moze 6mphasis on trying to have programs
which create a capacity within young people to be better equipped to
take on full time employment, or if not full time employment a
combination of employment graonudp training and education.
B. I was addressing a school~ yesterday about careers as a matter of fact,
and talking to some of those kids afterwards they did appear
still to have a little bit of bitterness, of disillusionment there
about their life and times. They felt that staying at school, leaving
in the next year or { w they still didn't have any.. great
confidence that there was much out there waiting for them.
H. There's still some of that but if you make a comparison Derek with
the beginning of ' 83 when we came to Office there was almost total
black despa ir st youth. That has been very largely removed2And
the evidenceas to why there should be more optimism with significantly..
reduced unemployment in this country, including unemployment amongst
young people.' There's been a significant increase in the number of
jobs available for them. And they see that with this co-ordinated
program w're going to be making it more worthwhile for young people
to stay in education. We're not only just spending money on these
things to lift allowances and to make more places, there will be
20,000 additional places in this coming training in tertiary
institutions. Something like an additional 75-85,000 places
in TAFE, but we are also giving effect to the recommendations of
the Committee of Inquiry headed by Prof. Karmel to look at the
quality of our primary and secondary education system, because one of
the problems of the past has been the education system hasn't been
intirely relevant to the needs of young people and the needs of
industry And in the resource agreement that we're negotiating with
the State we are sure that in the coming years there will be an
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improvement in the quality of the output Of oUr education system.
B. in your phone-in program-I'ib sure you're going to relieve a lotI
of frustration because the young do have ideas and very bright ideas,
what they didn't have, and what they didn't have up till-now, is
anyone to listen to them.
H. Well that's right Derek. I mean I've been fairly close ' to young
people right through my public life-, and one of the things that
became increasingly clear to me was that they did have this feeling
that we oldies were standing of f and saying, we know what theI
problems were and practically what the answers were and tending to
impose solutions upon them without involving them in our consideration
of what should happen. So that's why I promised in my address to
the Nation in August that while we would accept our responsibility
to start these new moves, I then wanted tq be able to listen to
the young people of Aus. to get th4exr ideas, and we will. This is not
iom6 cosmetic exercise1 the whole of the phone-in program is
computerised, we will have then at the end of it,. in addition to
my direct opportunity of listening to young people all the phone-ins
ideas 11ials I say be comnputerised and brought together and to
the extnt that ve see things out of that which lead us to the
conclusion that certain aspects of what we're doing should be
modified, those modifications will be made.
B. Given that youLte suye to get many ideas good ones and bad ones,
in fct illhavethefinl . determining
who ifatwlhaetefnlresponsibility in . which ones
will be taken up?
H. Well, it won't be just our responsibility we will arrange to have
consultations with the representative Council of Youth, we'll be
talking with them and they will have access to the results of the
phone-in and so we here in Gov't in consultation with the representa-'.-
tives of youth will then consider all the material.
B. Now you're not going to be able to please everyone I guess it's a
fact of political life that you can never achieve that result, but
I wonder if you feel that the other end of the scale, I'm talkingI
about the unemployed in their 50' s for instance. A lot of those
people feel a bit worthless they feel they've been dumped on the
scrap heap and there is no future for them. I wonder If there'd
be a tinge of bitterness at that end of the scale about what you're
doing for youth?
H. I don't think so at all for two reasons, the older people in this
country are parents & hd they take the view that the most important
asset Of this country i~ s our young people they want us to have
C. S7.
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a priority for addressing the needs of young people. The second
point of course is that whi16 this is priority One that doesn't
mean there aren't other priorities; and programs in the area of
re-training and job creation, ate relevant for that older age sector
as well so * e are very substantially increasing both the number of
jobs available in the community which wi1~ eb~ efit to older people
as well, but also having relevance to training and re-training
programs which are going to assist them.
B. I did hear a discussion the other day, somebody arguing that we
should get politics off the front pagewell they'd be very disappointe
today, because I noticed in all the Melbourne papers the name
Haewke crops up in the Headlines. You've " Go softly on super" and
you're supposed to be jumping on the ACTO over super. Is this a
matter of that much concern to you?
1. I want the community to understand, business and trade unionsthat
we have, in co-operation wi6th the trade unions, over the past two
and three quarter years. through the processes of the Accord, turned
this economy around from one of being in the worst recession for
years to one where: i, 51k now having very significant economic
growth and record employment creation. Now there is nothing to be
done which is going to Jeopardise that, and the Accord provides ways*
in which the productivity increise that is available will be
impleniented-. by way of superannuation. And that should be done
by negotiation, unions and employers. And I have Mr Keating today
meeting with the ACTU and next week going to be meeting with
representatives of the employers, after those discussions with Unions
and Employers we will then establish the guidelines for the
implementation of the new occupational superannuation. It's important
that thi~ s great benefit, the benefit not only for employees but
it's going to be very benefiCial for industry as well. Because it's
going to mean that we'll get a greater degree of mobility in our
work force. Up till now there-would have been a hesitation in many I
areas of the workforce about moving to other jobs because they would
have thought they ' d lose the benefit of existing superannuation which.
didn'L encourage portability with it. Well under this development
that we have now and the extension of superannuation we'll have a
more mobile workforce which is going to be of benefit to industry.
B. The Headline in the Australian for instance has Hawke, Keating, Willis
jumping on the ACTU, that sort of smacks of confrontation looming
over thiLs issue?
1. No not confrontation, there's no confrontation looming in any sense.
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What has been accepted very very generally by the trade union
movement is that there will be negotiation, that there won't be
any implementation of this before July 1 of 1986, it will be spread
over two years and that is overwhelmingly accepted by the trade
union movement.
B. Do your views differe from those of Mr. Keatingon the how the ACTU
should handle this situation?
No. it's very Interesting on that point to see that Mr. Noakes of the
CAI concedes that if you look fully at what Mr Keating said, you
can't assert that he was supporting Industrial Action and indeed as
Mr Keating made It perfectly clear yesterday he is not supporting
or condoning industrial action in support of super claims.
B. And finally Mr. Hawke in the Age I noticed that Michelle Grattan
talks about you winding down after a tough year, has it been tough? 7
H. Oh yes, you couldn't have had it tougher first half of the year than
I had, I was, as put it, incarcerated here in Canberra on the
preparation of the May Statement which was a hell of a lot of hard
work in that. We were cutting through expenditure programs, saving
about 1 Billion dollars. Then there was the whole tax package that
was
Aworking on it, and then preparation for the Budget. So the first
half of this year was a murderous period and I couldn't Tccept that
there'Id ever had a harder six months or so than that, but4 not any in
sense complaining about that, it's true that I'glad-thefcend of the
year is coming, we're in excellent shape and I'm looking forward to f
a bit of a break to do some reading, swimming, perhaps a bit of
fishing, some golf.
B. SO Priority one the Youth of Aus. and maybe Priority One and Half
abit of a rest eh?
H. That's fairly put Derek yeah.
ENDS