Move an attempt to encourage workers to turn to sectors with skills shortages
The leader of the Australian government's opposition party has proposed denying welfare benefits to young workers to encourage them to take jobs in sectors with skills shortages, such as mining.
However, such a move could be dangerous, say members of the mining sector.
Many jobs in mining require people to be highly skilled and highly trained, said Steven Smyth with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.
Encouraging unemployed young people, who lack the proper training, to work in underground or open cut mines could disastrous, he said.
Other critics of Tony Abbott's proposal agree, saying unskilled, unemployed workers can't just all of a sudden enter the resource sector as a way of solving the skills shortage because they lack the very skills the sector needs.
