Young people at risk of long-term welfare dependency will be the target of a $330 million dollar jobs package announced in the federal budget.
Almost one-third of the package goes for intensive support for young people facing significant barriers to employment.
Listen to the SBS Radio report:
One target group was vulnerable young migrants.
Eddie Micallef from the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria said it was a step in the right direction.
"Well that's extremely important because a whole range of refugees and young people, often with mental health problems - refugees especially and locals who have mental health issues - often get involved in the drug scene and I've had a long involvement in that area,” he said.
“Some of them even get sucked into the radical programs that are attractive to some people, so anything that responds to that challenge is welcome."
"A whole range of refugees and young people, often with mental health problems - refugees especially and locals who have mental health issues - often get involved in the drug scene."
Mr Micallef also welcomed an announcement in the federal budget that the government would increase the number of places available within Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program over the next four years.
The intake would remain steady at just under 14,000 places in the 2016-17 financial year, growing to just under 19,000 places in 2018-19.
The government said the increase in the intake came after its success in stopping asylum seeker boats, at a saving of about $500 million in this year's budget.
Mr Micallef said while he welcomed the increase, Australia could be doing more.
"Well $500 million...it may have stopped the boats but it hasn't stopped the problem,” he said.
“We may have solved our own particular little problem but the worldwide problem exists and I think that that's rather unfortunate.
“We should up the program to bring in more refugees and I think this country is wealthy enough and I think it's up to us to show a bit of magnanimous approach to the rest of the poorer countries who are suffering from a whole range of issues that affect their standard of living."
The federal budget allowed for up to 190,000 places for permanent migration over the next 12 months.
That would include about 128,000 places for skilled migration, 57,000 for family migration and an extra 3,500 places for child migrants.
Joe Caputo from the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia said he was happy with the figures and with the budget overall.
"I think that the migration program has always been good for the country and I think that it will continue to be good because it's fairly balanced and the Australian community and the Australian economy greatly benefits from a program such as this," he said.
"I think that at a glance, the budget announced tonight is fairly benign, fairly welcoming. It wasn't like last year where we had great concern. This year seems to be a fairly balanced budget."
Share
