There is little chance of seeing the minimum wage lowered for purely political reasons. But there is no excuse for paying people to do nothing. Therefore, anyone receiving the dole should be required to perform meaningful, productive work for the hours that would cut out the minimum hourly wage.

Unbelievable that this was written without checking the facts. A simple search for the rates of Newstart will show the figures cited are wrong.
David Leyonhjelm is just another ultra-right winger trying to find some relevance. He is hardly an intellectual.

Of course. It's a law of economics. It's like gravity and thermodynamics in physics. If no-one can legally be paid between zero and $12.10 per hour to work, there simply must be unemployment consequences for anyone whose work is valued in that range. But there’s another law at work here. Most voters are incapable of comprehending laws of economics, physics or anything else that requires adequate capability of the brain. So we are stuck with the problem. Or are we? It’s the politicians who are paid to solve that particular kind of problem. Go to it, Dr Leyonhjelm. I suggest starting a campaign to teach your fellow politicians of how fundamental laws work. They seem to have plenty of unused brain capacity.

We can reduce unemployment by reducing wages, or we can reduce unemployment by stimulating the economy. Unlike Greece and Spain we have unlimited credit, so there's no sensible reason to try to rush to surplus (not that doing so would be effective anyway; Greece and Spain show it isn't).

Tombee,I don't completely agree with your assertions on the hourly worth of some people or age related demographic, and suggest the good senator struggling to remain in the public eye and or, relevant, would likely be seriously overpaid at the suggested rate or absurdity?
Alan B.

Welcome back to the land of Senators Leyno.

I see you have maintained your style of short articles with little depth of evidence.

Your article would be much more informative if you provided:

- How do you define Youth Unemployment in Australia? and

- Do differing definitions and demographics explain far different figures in Japan and Germany?

Especially Japan with a much higher elderly population per capita, strict immigration restriction and low working participation by married women.

On Women see http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/japans-low-unemployment-is-easily.html :

"Many women in Japan do not work. The unemployment rate is the percent of the labor force who can't find work; if a bunch of women say "I am a housewife and am not looking for work"

So if more married or attached Australian women removed themselves from the labour force and became "housewives" Australia's Youth Unemployment Rate may quickly look as low as Japan's.