4BC Brisbane, Breakfast with Ian Skippen and Loretta Ryan
IAN SKIPPEN:
News this morning and he’s in town, Minister Kevin Andrews is on the line with us. There’s a, well, an interesting thought this morning.
LORETTA RYAN:
Yeah a call for school age teens to be assessed to determine whether they’re likely to end up on welfare and Kevin has revealed it’s time to intervene in the life choices of 14 and 15 years olds. Hello Kevin.
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Good morning.
LORETTA RYAN:
So why do you think that’s, we’re wondering if it’s too early, 14 and 15 years old for us to sort of intervene on what they want to do for the rest of their life.
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Well at many schools whether they’re government or non-government schools, there are programs of vocational direction and counselling where people sit down with young people and try and help them to assess what they want to do in their lives, but we know sadly that despite that some young people fall through the cracks, they don’t finish their schooling or they don’t get the skills they need and they end up on welfare. I suppose my view is, well, how can we act early, how can we have some program of early intervention or prevention, so that we can help young people to direct their lives so they’re not going to end up on welfare when they finish school.
LORETTA RYAN:
So what sort of intervention then, how can we change what we are currently doing?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Well I think what we need to do is to make sure that across all the schools and for all young people there’s an appropriate program in relation to their vocational future, looking at what’s realistic, what they need to do to get into various programs. As I said most schools do this but unfortunately there are parts of the country, including here in Brisbane, where that’s not happening for a significant group of young people, and I think we need to turn our attention more to putting some renewed effort into that.
IAN SKIPPEN:
Minister what’s the feedback you’ve been getting from job providers about this?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Look, so far good. I was down in the Logan area yesterday with Bert van Manen, the member for Forde, and we were talking to a variety of groups, organisations, welfare groups and the others, and they were saying, you know, it’s a pity when you see young people, and it’s not just in that area, but when you see young people who seem not to have had that sort of direction in their lives and are ending up on welfare or just roaming around the streets and the like.
LORETTA RYAN:
Is that because their family environment doesn’t help them?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Look it’s a combination, I think, of factors, in some cases obviously family environment. In some cases if they don’t see much purpose in their schooling and don’t see a future like most other young people do, I think we’ve got to look at these things as having a variety of causes, but what’s important is how can we help them so that people don’t end up in that situation.
LORETTA RYAN:
Cause you, I mean the Government has said it will crack down on teens, it’s an earn or learn strategy isn’t it?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
That’s right we’ve said for young people under 20 that if you haven’t got a job, then our expectation is that you are in some form of training so that you do get the skills and can get a job in the future
IAN SKIPPEN:
Minister do you have children?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Yes I do…
IAN SKIPPEN:
How have yours gone?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
So far they’re doing alright. You now every parent obviously is concerned about the future for their children, most of mine have grown up now and they’re working so…
LORETTA RYAN:
Didn’t want to go into politics hey?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Ah, they probably had too close an observation of it (inaudible)…
IAN SKIPPEN:
What about at 14 and 15 when they were coming through?
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Well at 14 and 15 we were talking to them about what their skills were, about what they wanted to do. Now Obviously at 14 or 15 you haven’t worked that out completely but I think the idea that when you finish school, you know, you want to be looking at what job you’re going to have, have you got the skills for that, do you need to do more training for that. As I said for most young people this occurs but for some they seem to slip through the cracks.
LORETTA RYAN:
Yeah it’s about making them start to think about it and I think work experience, you know when we were at school we’d go and find a part-time job. It could be anything, it could be waitressing. I do think McDonalds does a great job in that case.
IAN SKIPPEN:
And a lot are doing that already.
MINISTER ANDREWS:
That’s right; I mean I take young people for work experience in my office back in Melbourne. Many employers do that and that’s a good thing because it does give people, young people, some sense of what the real world is about.
IAN SKIPPEN:
They see what you do and they think so that’s politics, I think I’ll look at the next option thank you very much (laughs).
Thank you very much for calling this morning.
MINISTER ANDREWS:
Thank you.
IAN SKIPPEN:
Minister Kevin Andrews, Minister for Social Services, and the proposal that he’s thinking about.