Getting young people into work

It's worth noting that in countries with low minimum wages, there are also low levels of unemployment. A lower minimum wage would mean new jobs, as jobs currently priced out of existence would become available.

If we were to abandon or substantially reduce the minimum wage, and if some individuals were obliged to accept a lower wage in order to keep a job, they would at least have one. More significantly, so would many who are currently unemployed and receiving just $7 an hour.

Furthermore, studies show that most people on low wages move on to higher wages after about a year. Low wage jobs are an opportunity for people to start at a bottom rung and work up, which obviously cannot occur if they are being poorly paid for doing nothing.

Australia's youth unemployment problem may not be as serious as that of Greece or Spain, where minimum wages and rigid labour laws are condemning a generation of youngsters to idleness and welfare dependency, but our failure to address it is no less unconscionable. And it's not as if we don't know what to do about it.