Stop all the crap, push for a non military national service for people aged 19-21. Solve a huge part of the present problem caused by dumbed down educated. The reason the lefties denounce a national service is because they're worried the young might actually have some sense that can't be educated out of them.

I'm with Big Nana, only instead of living in the Kimberleys, I live in Alice Springs.
A regular sight is able bodied young and old men and women walking around town day in and day out like unregistered dogs.
They do nothing.
They play the guilt card.
They often express racist attitudes.
They contribute nothing.
They collect the dole as if it is their destiny.
And this has been going on for a few decades now.
It's not the birth of a lost generation. It's the birth of another lost generation.
If Abbott and Hockey can turn this around, then more power to them.
What's happening down south is beyond my ken, but what's happening, and what has been happening, in the Centre is criminal.

Its funny how you lot above are so anti-Conservative on Ukraine but so RSL like on youth unemployment. Your ideas are stuffed.

National Service would mean all the thousands of Public Servants being sacked in Canberra would need to be rehired to administer a National Service Scheme.

Pink Batts Two here we come.

Kellie has hit the nail on the head here. If you ignore the outliers such as fruit pickers and 'all those Asians' taking 'our jobs', then this is shaping up to be a very nasty intergenerational bun fight. Ryan Heath is fairly hardline but makes some good points:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/upping-pension-age-is-the-clear-way-forward-20140515-zrd7b.html

and he is not alone.

There are nowhere near enough jobs for people 18-26, yet many of these have also been saddled with large HECS debts. Getting more degrees doesn't help because then you're 'over qualified'.

The economic conditions which sustained the Boomers (even with stagflation and two recessions) can not compare to the levels of surveyed and hidden youth and young adult unemployment. The ongoing structural changes in the workforce are excluding those we should be embracing. There will be tears - big time.

'The government also fails to understand that schools aren't responsible for the transition of young people into work. Their role is to provide education: curriculum delivery and academic outcomes. Successfully implementing programs in schools to develop employability skills in our young people – communication skills, personal presentation skills, the attitude to work, the ability to work as part of a team – '

Err no developing employability skills is what happens in work. Schools should teach our kids how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read, write and comprehend. If they then show ability to advance to higher education after flourishing at those skills then well and good. Otherwise they will have at the very least developed the necessary ability to develop suitable employability skills while in a first menial job or apprenticeship
What Kel!ie is is advocating is the current practice be continued and it is precisely that huplus too higher starting wages that have cruelled the employability of our youngsters.

Our education policies at the State level need encourage a focus on the basics to year nine.

A great secondary step is to allow competition within our unis and limit funding for research. Our unis will soon dump dumbed down useless degrees and funding stupidities in environment and climate change research.

That's the post of the day ChrisPer: "Abbott666" :-)