Canberra 27 May 2015:   Labor and the unions have again today shown they have no plan to address youth unemployment.
 

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) draft “policy” document released today shows that they oppose the Government’s new National Work Experience Programme and Work for the Dole.
 

The ACTU have put out a policy document which contains no policy for addressing youth unemployment.
 

Typically, the ACTU has thrown criticism at the Government and true to form they have failed to recommend one positive policy to get more young people into work.
 

Under the Government’s National Work Experience Programme job seekers can volunteer for up to four weeks work experience in a business while continuing to receive their income support.
 

This successful and positive Government policy is supported by ACOSS, ACCI, and Brotherhood of St Laurence, and will get young people the experience they need to get a job. And, it was a programme supported by the former Labor Government.
 

When I speak to young job seekers around Australia they tell me that it is hard to get a job without experience and it is hard to get experience when no one will give them a job.
 

Work Experience and Work for the Dole address this issue by giving job seekers skills, knowledge and experience they can use to get a job.
 

The Government has recently announced over $7 billion worth of programmes to support job seekers as they look for work, and all the Labor Party and their puppet masters the ACTU can do is snipe from the sidelines.
 

Mr Shorten failed to mention youth unemployment in his Budget-In-Reply speech which is not surprising because he leads a Labor party beholden to the ACTU whose only plan is to oppose.
 

Labor’s year of no ideas continues with Mr Shorten dancing to the ACTU’s fife – no policy, no plan and no ideas.