Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

56
Hawke Government, a Labour government led by Bob Hawke, from 1983. Harris (2001)
also analyses in retrospect the political context for social policy during the SYETP period
of operation. According to Harris (2001), during the Fraser period, SYETP operated
within the context of deflationary budgets, except for during 1981-1982. Harris (2001)
claims that little policy was implemented to combat unemployment, with a policy-making
background where it was widely held within Treasury that unemployment levels could
play a role in dampening inflationary expectations. Labour market programmes were
adopted to deal with unemployment from a social perspective.
The Fraser period was however a time during which an effort was made to develop a
number of labour market programmes, of which SYETP was one within the NEAT 34
umbrella. The build up to the introduction of labour market programmes started between
1973 and the end of 1975, when unemployment rose and it became clear that it would not
be short-lived (Ross (1988): 29). The significant rise in unemployment was particularly
amongst young unemployed (Hoy and Paterson (1983): 2). A direct link is drawn by Ross
(1988) p29 between the introduction of these “...small number of large-scale
programmes...” and the then recently held government inquiries into Overseas Manpower
and Industry Policies (1973), Labour Market Training (1973) and Unemployment
Statistics (1973). In reference to the Fraser period, Harris (2001) cites the introduction
during this period of a 6 week waiting period for school leavers and those who had left
their last job, and points out that unemployment benefit criteria were tightened alongside
the labour market programmes. Chapman (1985) p101 refers to the balancing act played
by SYETP in policy:
“...the conservative government needed to be seen to be concerned with
burgeoning youth unemployment, but at the same time, there were perceived
political risks associated with direct job creation programmes…Youth
oriented wage subsidies accomplished the twin goals of targeted employment
assistance and private sector support”.
34 National Employment and Training system, an active labour market program of training and wage
subsidies.