I rise to speak on the impact COVID has had on young people and the future they face. It's hard to overstate how rapidly and dramatically COVID-19 has changed the world for young people. But we must acknowledge that neither they nor the pandemic are the cause of the greatest challenges they face. Those have been created for them by older generations. A recent Betoota Advocate headline attributes a fake quote to the Prime Minister: 'The sooner young people understand they're effed, the sooner they'll be happy.' It's hard to argue with.

Responding to today’s devastating job figures that see youth unemployment at a 23 year high, Greens Leader, Adam Bandt MP, called on the government to implement a youth Jobs Guarantee and an investment plan, saying young people are giving up and losing hope.

“Young people are dropping out, giving up and losing hope,” said Mr Bandt.

“We are on the verge of creating a lost generation and Scott Morrison has no plan to fix it.

Australian Greens Youth spokesperson, and Australia's youngest Senator, Jordon Steele-John has called for greater engagement with young people to help shape our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today is International Youth Day and the theme for 2020 is Youth Engagement for Global Action, which seeks to highlight the need for greater engagement with young people to enhance formal institutional politics and process at the local, national and global level.

Responding to today’s alarming economic figures, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said Scott Morrison has no plan to get the country out of recession and that a bold investment plan was needed, not granite benchtop grants.

“Australia is in recession and Scott Morrison has no plan to get us out of it,” said Mr Bandt.

“Depression-era job queues demand a Depression-era response, which means massive public investment in nation-building, planet-saving projects, not granite benchtop grants.”

Young people will be guaranteed a job, secure income, and free education under a new Greens recovery plan to build ‘a better normal’ and restart the economy after the coronavirus economic shock.

The vision for a debt-financed recovery reaffirms the government’s role in responding to the crisis, and rejects the austerity approaches offered by the Liberal and Labor parties, charting a course for a government-led recovery that extends Australia’s social services, instead of slashing funding for education, healthcare, and the environment.

Young people will be guaranteed a job, secure income, and free education under a new Greens recovery plan to restart the economy and build ‘a better normal’ after the coronavirus economic shock.

The vision for a debt-financed recovery reaffirms the government’s role in responding to the crisis, and rejects the austerity approaches offered by the Liberal and Labor parties, charting a course for a government-led recovery that extends Australia’s world-class social services, instead of slashing funding for education, healthcare, and the environment.

The Australian Greens have responded to today's jobs figures showing nearly 4 in 10 young people without a job or enough hours of work, warning that unless the government massively invests to recover from this crisis, already skyrocketing unemployment and underemployment for young people will reach catastrophic levels in the coming months and years. 

Young people starting their first job following the COVID-19 crisis will earn on average $35,000 less than their peers over the next decade – a 6% pay cut, or essentially working over 6 months unpaid, modelling from the Australian Greens has predicted.