FED:Abbott wants to reform youth welfare

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2010
FED:Abbott wants to reform youth welfare

SYDNEY, Aug 7 AAP - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will consider implementing a major
reform of youth welfare if he wins government, saying Australia needs "visionary ideas".

Under his plan to "break the youth welfare subculture", young people would volunteer
to give up their benefits in return for a guaranteed job, Fairfax newspapers reported
on Saturday.

Mr Abbott said he was guided in his thinking by Noel Pearson, the founder of the Cape
York Institute for Policy and Leadership.

"I think that Noel's ideas for breaking the (welfare) cycle in terms of asking young
people voluntarily to renounce their welfare entitlement for a period of time in return
for a guaranteed job - I think these are well worth further exploring," Mr Abbott told
Fairfax.

"If we are serious about attacking the entrenched welfare subculture more generally
I think we do have to look at some of these visionary ideas."

The unemployment rate among people aged 15 to 19 who are looking for work is 16.9 per
cent, three times the national average rate.

Among those 15 to 24 it is 11.5 per cent, double the national average.

Fairfax said the proposal marks an increasingly positive turn in Mr Abbott's campaign,
as his political position strengthens.

The opposition leader said he wouldn't tamper with access to abortion services.

"It will be as it currently is. The coalition has no plans whatsoever to change the
status quo in this area," he said.

AAP tr/ao

KEYWORD: POLL10 ABBOTT YOUTH

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