Tweet of the Week

Some parodies just beg to be written ...others sorta demand like a terrorist 🤣 a few minutes ago it was "oh come ON you know you wanna....i deserves it!..go on i DARE ya....write me and tweet it..." so being a softie i gave in. "Workin for the man...oops i mean dole" 🙄 pic.twitter.com/7XSZgCAAuc

— Glenno and Ruben (@mad6duck) September 23, 2023

Australia's Misery Index might not be as high as during the Global Financial Crisis or the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic but it's at a less than comfortable level in 2023

At its meeting on 6 June 2023 the Reserve Bank of Australia Board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.10 per cent.

Banks and other financial institutions are adjusting their mortgage & loan investment rates upwards again and the ABS Cost Price Index (CPI) remains stubbornly high for the category labelled Food & non-alcoholic beverages.

This was the twelfth cash rate rise in the thirteen months from 4 May 2022 to 7 June 2023.

The inflation rate is hovering at 7.0, while everyone hopes that by the end of June it will stand at 6.25.

The fact that it appears inflationary pressures might still be with us in 2024 doesn’t make for happy little Vegemites in the average Australian household.

This general dark mood can be measured using the Misery Index. An economic concept created in the1960s by Okun and further refined by Barro and Hanke.

It is based on the assumption that:

1) a higher cash rate/interest rate increases the cost of borrowing;

2) which in turn drives up the cost price index for essential goods services;

3) when these factors combine with the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (rate calculated at times two if you are a Hanke purist); and

4) there is slower/lower growth in the nation’s gross domestic product;

5) this combination goes on to create economic and social costs – or misery – for a country.

To establish where a country is on the Misery Index basically one adds the current reserve bank cash rate, cost price index & seasonally adjusted unemployment figures together and then divides that number by the year end real gross domestic product per capita to produce the Index score.

In Australia’s case the Misery Index according to Professor Guay Lim and Associate Professor Sam Tsiaplias (University of Melbourne) – writing in March 2023 – came in at a whopping 16.3 per cent in third quarter of 2008 during the Global Financial Crisis and 13.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, just as the global pandemic really began to bite.

The Misery Index fell sharply in in the second quarter of 2021 but began to climb again over the following months reaching 9.9 per cent in December.

The quarterly Economic Misery Index since 2000. Recent high inflation and high interest rates have caused a rapid rise in the index. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Graph: University of Melbourne, Pursuit, “WHAT WE CAN EXPECT FROM THE 2023 ECONOMIC ‘MISERY INDEX’ ”, March 2023

By 2022 the annual economic misery index was at 9.2 per cent.

Unfortunately the Misery Index is not currently budging by much. In the first two weeks of this month, June 2023, it would seem that our quota of misery is somewhere between 9.0 and 9.11 per cent.

Columnist Van Badham writing in The Guardian on 9 June 2023 had this to say:

Australian households with the average $600,000 mortgage have been asked to find a spare $17,000 among the couch cushions since the RBA began its lifting-rates-a-thon last May.

There’s rising costs of other expenses, such as transport. The Australian Automobile Association calculated the average cost of running a car in this country went up $28.31 a week in the March quarter; in Brisbane and Melbourne, it went up $34. With associated automotive costs, using a car in Sydney now averages $510 a week.

Meanwhile, in regional Victoria, one food bank is shipping 40 tonnes of food every day to help struggling families.

Why are the price rises happening? International research conducted by the OECD concluded “corporate profits contributed far more to Australia’s rise in inflation through the past year than from wages and other employee costs”. There’s been similar analysis from the European Central Bank. The Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury disagree, I guess because the OECD is led by notorious communist Mathias Cormann.

The RBA insists that the pay packets of Australian workers have magically, secretly swelled, and this is driving inflation – even though, as Australian economist Stephen Koukoulas has said, “real unit labour costs only rose 0.1% in the March quarter and 1% over the course of the year”.

And how is it possible wages are inflicting such terrible damage when the ACTU could observe major local employers are enjoying profits at Scrooge McDuck levels? The latest half-yearly statements had Ampol bathing in $440m, Coles $616m, Qantas $1.4bn … and the Commonwealth Bank taking a swim in the gold coins pool at a depth of $5.15bn.

Philip Lowe is the RBA governor. Although he has a whole bank board and a coterie of senior mandarins alongside him making rate rise decisions, he is certainly to blame for public statements that imply “workers pay to solve inflation they didn’t cause”, to quote (yet another) economist Jim Stanford.

The theory for the rises is neoliberal orthodoxy; apply economic pressure to cause unemployment, and make those who retain their jobs live in such valid terror of the burning tyre-pit hell that is Centrelink that they won’t make pay demands and therefore won’t drive “wage price” inflation.

Lowe has generously suggested that those households struggling to keep up with rising mortgages – 27.8% of whom are now at risk of mortgage stress – to just “pick up more work”. This is Schrödinger’s employment policy, where the RBA advocates for and against employment at the same time, while you place a box on your head and scream at your ballooning mortgage repayments. An earlier Lowe suggestion was that those struggling with exploding rents should magic up some flatmates or move back to a “home” that may or may not exist.

You, Australian, are responsible for your own misery. But that means you’re responsible for your own happiness, right?

So while you’re forced to cut spending, alleviate supermarket blues by performing a funky dance in the canned veg section the inevitable moment a Katy Perry song comes over the PA. Similarly, suppressing an instinct to ask for the wages you need to meet your costs can be a lot less painful if you hum your favourite 80s sitcom themes at work.

Automotive costs might force you into long and difficult walks to overcrowded, underfunded public transport, so maybe commute in a clown suit. If you’re facing record rent rises, you could consider reciting beautifully sad poems from the nearest window and lure flatmates to you with your tender pain.

History suggests there are alternatives, but demands for rent freezes and price controls are unconstitutional. Referendums to allow government economic intervention of this kind were defeated in 1948 and 1973. Faced with inflationary challenges in the 1950s, though, the Liberal government of Robert Menzies addressed the problem by raising taxes on the rich.

Sadly, the Australian people voted Scott Morrison into power in 2019 on a promise to implement the stage-three tax cuts, and then a promise by Labor to keep these cuts on the books arguably convinced enough swing voters over the electoral line.

There is no help coming for Australians from the RBA. Perhaps we should ask ourselves how much of this misery we might have power over, after all.

Unemployment numbers in the NSW Northern Rivers region

 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the national unemployment rate in February 2023 remained at 3.5% (est.559,200 people). 

NOTE: ABS Labor Force, Australia data for February 2023 was published on 16.03.23 & the next Labor Force, Australia covering March 2023 will be released on 13.04.23.

In New South Wales the unemployment rate held steady at 3.4% (est. 153,100 people) and seasonally adjusted stood at 3.2%. Broken down from original data ABS records there was an unemployment rate of 3.6% for males and 3.2% for females.

According to idcommunity:demograhic resources, monthly data published by the Department of Social Services (DSS) for February 2023 shows that there were 120,135 Jobseeker and Youth Allowance recipients in regional New South Wales. That figure represents 7.1% of the total regional workforce age population – a drop of 0.2% since February 2022.

By comparison there were 15,767Jobseeker and Youth Allowance recipients in the Northern Rivers region in February 2023. That figure represents 8.8% of all people of workforce age in the region – a drop of 0.5% since February 2022.

In terms of local government areas the combined Jobseeker and Youth Unemployment numbers are:

Tweed Shire – 4,135 people being 7.4% of the LGA workforce age population.

Clarence Valley – 3,210 people being 11.1% of the LGA workforce age population.

Lismore City – 2,736 people being 10.1% of the LGA workforce age population.

Byron Shire – 2,115 people being 9.3% of the LGA workforce age population.

Ballina Shire – 1,560 people being 6.0% of the LGA workforce age population.

Richmond Valley – 1,378 people being 10.3% of the LGA workforce age population.

Kyogle Shire – 663 people being 12.7% of the LGA workforce age population.

Dept. of Social Services monthly data by Statistical Area Level 2 shows that in February 2023 the two Northern Rivers LGAs with the highest levels of unemployment had this profile for major population centres:

• In Tweed Heads & Tweed Heads South there was a combined total of 1,420 people on an unemployment payment/allowance, with Murwillumbah & Murwillumbah Region had a combined total of 1,210 people. While Pottsville Region had 500 people on unemployment payment/allowance, Banora Point 490 people and Kingscliff-Fingal Head 450 people.

• Grafton City & Grafton Region has a combined total of 2,400 people on an unemployment payment/allowance, while Maclean-Yamba-Iluka had a total of 810 people.

Note: The Board of Reserve Bank of Australia expects the national unemployment rate to rise towards the end of 2023.

Climate change impacts even affect official labour force statistics in 2022

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 19 May 2021:

Impacts from floods in New South Wales and Queensland 

Flooding in New South Wales and Queensland in late February 2022 resulted in a major disruption to the operation of the Labour Force Survey. As a result, there was lower than usual numbers of responding households in some of the affected regions in March 2022. 

Given the severity of these disruptions and to ensure this loss of sample did not affect data for Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, the ABS imputed some sample within 15 statistical area level 4 (SA4s) regions for March 2022. This imputation approach drew upon previous information that had recently been collected from people in the affected areas, following the approach used for February 2019 for the Townsville Flood. 

The ABS has re-assessed this imputation, with reference to April 2022 data for the affected areas, and has not revised the imputed data for March. The ABS will continue to monitor the data over coming months and undertake additional analysis of the imputed data as further data becomes available. Data for all SA4s will be published in Labour Force, Australia, Detailed on 26 May 2022. 

[my yellow highlighting]

What the Australian Bureau of Statistics is politely saying is that Labour Force, Australia for April 2022, released on 19 May 2022 – containing headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey – is educated guesswork and voters won’t know if the figures and percentage changes hold until 5 days after the federal general election at the earliest.

Australian federal election campaign 2022: employment promises

The 2022 federal election campaign has begun in earnest. Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison promises "to create1.3 million jobs over the next five years" [Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2022] and Opposition Leader & Liberal MP for Grayndler Anthony Albanese pledges "to support a road map released by Tech Council Australia (TCA) to reach 1.2 million jobs in the industry within eight years" [NEWS.com.au, 24 March 2022].

Perhaps before considering competing promises and any future claims one should look back on employment and jobs growth year-to-year for the four years since that regime change occurred.

Australian Bureau of Statistics- ANZ Research: National Job Vacancies(work available), Unemployment, Underemployment & All Hours Worked

6 September 2018: 178,322 advertised jobs available in August prior to Morrison becomes prime minister 24 August 2018

Seasonally adjusted in August there were: 

est.12,631,300 people listed as employed; 

est. 708,800 listed as unemployed; 

the unemployment rate was 5.3% and underemployment rate was 8.1%.

Total hours worked all jobs that month - 1,750.9 million.

6 September 2019: 156,978 advertised jobs available in August

Seasonally adjusted in August there were:

est. 12,926,900 people listed as employed; 

est. 716,800 people listed as unemployed; 

the unemployment rate was 5.3% and underemployment rate was 8.6%;

Total hours worked that month - 1,782.6 million.

Compared to August 2018 there were fewer available jobs, more people listed as unemployed and the underemployment rate was higher. More people were recorded as being in employment and national hours worked had risen.

7 February 2020: 149,544 advertised jobs available for January pre-COVID

Seasonally adjusted in January there were:

12,988,400 people listed as employed; 

725,500 people registered as unemployed; 

the unemployment rate was 5.3% and underemployment rate was 8.6%.

Total all hours worked that month - 1,778 million.

6 September 2020: 109,103 advertised jobs available in August

Seasonally adjusted in August there were: 

12,583,400 people listed as employed; 

921,800 people registered as unemployed; 

the unemployment rate was 6.8% and underemployment rate was 11.2%.

Total all hours worked that month - 1,683 million.

Compared to August 2019 there were fewer jobs available, less people were in employment, more people unemployed, the underemployment rate was higher and national hours worked had  fallen.

6 September 2021: 195,995 advertised jobs available in August

Seasonally adjusted in August there were:

13,022,600 people listed as employed; 

617,100 people listed as unemployed; 

the unemployment rate was 4.5% and underemployment rate was 9.3%;

Total all hours worked all jobs that month - 1,714 million.

Compared to August 2020 there were more jobs available, more people in employment, less people unemployed, the underemployment rate was lower and national hours worked had risen.

Between August 2018 and August 2021 all cited indicators fluctuated. However, by the end of that four year month-to-month comparison: the number of available jobs had risen by 17,673 in a resident population which had grown by est. 570,000 persons; people in employment had increased by 391,300; the unemployment rate was 0.8% lower; the underemployment rate1.2% higher; and national hours worked had fallen by 36.9 million.

4 March 2022: 228,170 advertised jobs available in February 

In February there were: 

13,372,000 people listed as employed; 

563,300 people registered as unemployed; 

seasonally adjusted the unemployment rate was 4.0% and underemployment rate 6.6%. 

Total all hours worked that month - 1,183 million. Most recent ABS data for 2022

Definitions

• Any person in the labour force who did paid work or who was only temporarily absent from paid work is considered employed. 
• Any person in the labour force who didn't do paid work and wasn't temporarily absent from paid work is considered unemployed.
• Any unemployed person who is no longer looking for work is considered not participating in the national labour force.
• Any person in paid employment who is not fully employed and is looking for and/or available to start work with more hours is considered to be underemployed.

SOURCES

https://media.anz.com/search-results?key=job+ad

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour

In an election year all incumbent governments tend to casually toss around figures which paint rosy pictures. Given the growing reputation of the Morrison Government, perhaps it is wise to at least start off with reliable labor force, cost of living, consumer confidence & job numbers for the first month of 2022 in Australia & New South Wales

 

The first labor force and household economy breakdowns of 2022.

Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), LABOR FORCE: Headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked from the monthly Labour Force Survey, January 2022 – released 17 February 2022:

Key statistics

Seasonally adjusted estimates for January 2022:

• Unemployment rate stood at 4.2%

580,000 unemployed - up from 574,400 in December 2021.

• Participation rate increased to 66.2%

Up from 66.1% in December 2021. However, participation decreased by 0.4 pts for men to 70.4% and increased by 0.6 pts to 62.1% for women

• Employment increased to 13,255,000

An increase of 12,900 people or 0.1% since December 2021.

Full-time employment decreased by 17,000 to 9,077,300 people, and part-time employment increased by 30,000 to 4,177,600 people. Part time employed made up 31.5% of all employment.

• Employment to population ratio increased to 63.4%

Up 0.3% since December 2021.

• Underemployment rate increased to 6.7%

Up from 6.6% in December 2021.

• Monthly hours worked decreased by 159 million hours

A decrease of 8.8% (in seasonally adjusted terms) between December 2021 and January 2022.

In New South Wales in January 2022

• Unemployment rate stood at 4.2%

Up 0.2% from December 2021

• Participation rate stood at 64.8%

A 0.2% fall since December 2021.

• Employment stood at 4,137,200

A 0.2% fall since December 2021.

Full time employment fell by 27,100 people and part time employment fell by 42,100 people. Part time employment made up est. 29% of all employment.

• Employment to population ratio fell to 58.2%

Down from 58.4% since December 2021.

• Underemployment rate increased to 6.4%

Up from 6.2% in December 2021.

• Monthly hours worked deceased by est. 78.18 million hours.

Going from 578,333.6 hours in December 2021 to 500,148.7 hours in January 2022.

ANZ Job Ads report, 7 February 2022:

ANZ Australian Job Ads fell 0.3 per cent in January following a downwardly revised 5.8 per cent drop in December. Despite the surge in Omicron cases, Job Ads remained 9.6 per cent above the Delta-lockdown lows. 

Based on ABS, Cost Price Index - Weighted average of eight capital cities, All groups - going into January 2022:

In December Quarter 2021 the Cost Price Index totalled 121.3 - a rise of 1.3% on the September Quarter. The 5 Selected Living Cost Indexes (LCIs) having risen for all 5 household types. 

In the period 1 January to 31 December 2022 the LCI rise across all categories was between 2.6% and 3.4%:

• Transport was the main contributor for all five population sub-groups, with the price of Automotive fuel rising 32%.

• The Age pensioner household sub-group had the highest annual increase (+3.4%). Food makes up a higher proportion of this sub-group compared to the others. This household group also had the highest annual increase in housing costs.

• The Employee household sub-group had the lowest annual increase (+2.6%) due to Mortgage interest charges falling over the year. Excluding Mortgage interest charges, this household group would have risen 3.1%.

Based on ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence: 

17-23 January 2022

 Australia - 101.1 up 2.2%, rising above the neutral level of 100 but dropping in NSW by -2.4%.

14-30 January 2022

Australia - 101.8 up 1.7% and, after three weeks of decline in NSW state consumer confidence rose to 6.2%.

Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison relentlessly pursues his personal war on the poor and vulnerable

Australian Prime Minister Scott John Morrison
IMAGE: AAP

The Guardian, 23 February 2021:

The strategy behind the federal government’s increase to the jobseeker payment is crystal clear: Scott Morrison will say he is the first leader in almost 30 years to increase the rate of welfare for unemployed people. Never mind that it is only by less than $3.60 per day. Damned if it keeps people in poverty; too bad that it won’t even recover lost ground since the payment was decoupled from (flat) wages growth in 1997.

Already, the new figure represents a $100 per fortnight cut in the rate, as the coronavirus supplement of $150 is due to end on 31 March.

The Morrison government will consider the political issue solved and brand as ungrateful anyone who dares question it.

The prime minister thinks only in the hollow terms of political problems. Humanity does not figure into the equation. Worse, for a man who thinks he knows the answer he has never suffered the real problem. Neither he nor almost anyone in his government has ever had to do the threadbare arithmetic of blunt survival. Never had to make a decision to skip meals or medications to feed a family. Never had a single, sudden expense trigger a five-year debt spiral. There have been no back-to-back years of punishing stress which exacts its toll not only on the mind but on the body, too. His children have not been raised in the kind of penury that scientific studies have shown actually reduce the volume and surface area of brain matter in young people, by as much as 20%. These shrinkages of the brain occur not because of a lack of access to nourishing food (though these are also problems). Nor do they occur because of poorer access to health, dentistry and quality education, although these are all issues, too. I want this to sink in so read it slowly: the studies show our brains fade away precisely because of the stress that poverty breeds in the home. It is the mental and physical exertion that does it; the ambient terror of not knowing how the day will unfold or if you will make it through it. Young children absorb this persistent anxiety in their own bodies, the way our teeth collect and preserve caesium isotopes after radioactive exposure. None of these things has ever applied to Scott Morrison.

The problem is not necessarily that he has not lived this life, but that he refuses to accept the testimony of the millions who have. Millions. It reaches further down, into the public service, where often well-meaning people are forced to reduce the rich and complicated human tapestry to mere budget constraints and policy priorities. For those who have not lived the life of gritty survival, it is difficult to really understand the consequences of enduring scarcity. These aftershocks bleed into every area of government service delivery and into every budget…..

Read the full article here .

The Guardian, 23 February 2021:

Business leaders and welfare advocates have blasted the Morrison government’s decision to establish a hotline for employers to dob in unemployed Australians who refuse job offers, calling the measure out of touch with small business owners who believe “most unemployed people are not dole bludgers”.

Unions have been even more critical of what they see as the “dangerous” hotline, warning it could force women into accepting jobs from employers who treat them poorly or who make “sleazy propositions” to them during an interview.

In revealing a $50-a-fortnight rise to the base rate of jobseeker on Tuesday, the government also announced it would launch “an employer reporting line” to “refer jobseekers who are not genuine about their job search or decline the offer of a job”.

Explaining the government’s reasoning behind the measure, the employment minister, Michaelia Cash, said “you often hear, though, employers saying, ‘Joe applied for a job. He was qualified for the job ... and they said no”.

“If someone does apply for a job, they’re offered the job and they’re qualified for the job but they say no, the employer will now be able to contact my department and report that person as failing to accept suitable employment.

“This will then mean that my department can follow up with that person or alternatively, Jobactive can follow up with that person, to ascertain exactly why they said no to a suitable job,” Cash said.

Cash said unemployed Australians who were found not to have “a valid reason” for refusing a job “will be breached for that”…..

How will older Clarence Valley workers now without a job fare under the new employment landscape created by the Morrison and Frydenberg's JobMaker Hiring Credits?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the Clarence Valley NSW this is how our resident population breaks down:

Resident population – 51,662 persons as of 30 June 2019

Males – 25,891

Females – 25,771

Gender ratio (number of males per 100 females) – 100.5

Median age – 49.2 years

Age composition of population total – 0-14 years 16.9%, 

15-64 years 56.6%, 65 years and over 26.6%.

There are 3,480 people aged 80 years and older and 8,709 children 

aged between 0-14 years.

The largest age cluster in people of workforce age are those aged 

between 55-64 years.

By 31 March 2020 the Clarence Valley over all unemployment rate was 6.3% - higher than both the New South Wales and national unemployment rate.

A relatively high unemployment rate is a feature of the valley’s economy and from time to time when a new government employment program comes along our communities hope for some relief for the unemployed in their midst.

On 11 July 2014 then Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Warringah Tony Abbott launched the Restart programme.

Restart is a financial incentive of up to $10,000 (GST inclusive) to encourage businesses to hire and retain mature age employees who are 50 years of age and over who have been out of work for out of work for six months or more.

Employment under this scheme was to be for a guaranteed 26 weeks with the hope that employers would retain the subsidised workers as part of their regular non-subsidised workforce after that.

However, in the last six years and four months it appears over half of the funding eamarked for Restart has remained in federal government coffers, only est. 51,190 older workers were employed under the Restart program and 40 per cent of those were out of work within.

This program bears all the features which would make it capable of being gamed by both job service providers and employers.

Now due to the current economic recession in Australia, the Morrison Coalition Government has decided to continue forgetting that older workers exist and, focus instead on those unnempoyed individuals between 66 and 35 years of age receiving JobSeeker, Youth Allowance (Other) or Parenting Payment.

This new program which was due to commence on 7 October 2020 is called the JobMaker Hiring Credit. A total of $4 billion in funding has been allocated to this programe from 2020-21 to 2022-23.

It seems that this too will be a program likely to be gamed by employers…..

ABC News, 31 October 2020:

The Federal Government's new wage subsidy hasn't passed Parliament yet, but some employers are already advertising for young workers who will qualify for the program.

So how does that sit with Australia's anti-discrimination laws, and will the scheme make it more difficult for people who don't qualify to find work?

Here's what we know.

Who will be covered by the wage subsidy?

The JobMaker Hiring Credit will provide wage subsidies to businesses if they take on extra workers, between the ages of 16 and 35, who have been receiving JobSeeker, Youth Allowance (Other) or Parenting Payment.

Employers will be able to claim $200 per week for staff aged between 16 and 29, and $100 a week for those aged 30 to 35.

The $4 billion program, announced in the recent Budget, is currently being examined by a Senate committee, which has received a mixed response so far.

But some online job advertisements are already asking for candidates who fit the criteria.

"This is a newly created role under the JobMaker program and as such candidates will be expected to demonstrate eligibility with the JobMaker provisions," one advertisement read.

"Please confirm your age is between 16y and 35y."

Ads have begun appearing specifically asking only for people who meet the eligibility to apply.(ABC News)

Another ad asked for candidates who would be eligible for the higher Hiring Credit rate.

"To be successful in this role you will have: Eligibility for the JobMaker program (ie be aged 16 to 29 years old and have received income support, such as JobSeeker or Youth Allowance, for at least one of the prior three months)."

Nicole Newport-Ryan lost her job in March, and while she has since picked up part-time work, the 48-year-old is still hoping for a full-time position.

"They may as well write, 'If you're over this age please don't even read the advert,'" she said.

"You know like, don't even bother applying, don't read it, we're not interested in you.

"I think it's absolutely discriminatory."…..

What does the law say?

In a statement, Treasury said Australia's Age Discrimination Act generally made it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of age.

"However, the JobMaker Hiring Credit falls within the exemptions from this general prohibition," it said.

"Individual circumstances will vary, and employers should seek their own legal advice as to how the law will apply to them."

Alysia Blackham, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne, pointed to a couple of exemptions that could apply.

"One of them is if it complies with another law, so once this is passed in legislation, it's possible that it will be exempt on that basis," she said…..

Youth unemployment is also a persistent concern in the Clarence Valley and, I sincerely hope that local employers who are able to hire take up JobMaker Hiring Credits and employ younger people in newly created positions. 

At the same time I hope local employers consider hiring older workers as well, using the Restart program to subsidise their wages for the first six and a half months. The Employer Hotline on 13 17 15 will be able to point prospective employers in the right direction.