The controversial Youth Jobs Prepare Train Hire (PaTH) program was introduced in a blaze of glory in the 2016 Federal Budget, and launched in April last year.

As part of the $840.3 million program the government pledged that over four years it would help up to 120,000 young Australian into jobs.



Seventeen-to-24-year-olds earn $200 a fortnight – as little as $4 per hour – on top of their current welfare payments, for the duration of the volunteer four-to-12 week internship of up to 25 hours work per week.

BuzzFeed News has previously revealed major problems with the PaTH program, including one intern who worked a 58-hour week at a Melbourne coffee franchise.

The same franchise was suspended from the program after it was caught trying to pay interns for overtime with $50 gift cards and have an intern work without an agreement.

Minister Cash told The Guardian on Tuesday: “The Department of Jobs and Small Business closely monitors all internship placements to ensure program requirements are met".

But the department says that's not true, and that it doesn't monitor the hours or days interns work.

"We don't collect information on the hours that they work," Greg Manning, the groups manager of youth and programmes at the Department of Jobs and Small Business, told Senate Estimates.

"There's a requirement of a minimum of 20 hours a week on average for [the bonus wage subsidy], so we know that, but we don't collect data on how many hours each intern's working and when those hours are," Manning said last month.

Instead, it is up to individual businesses to internally monitor that young people are not working more than 25 hours per week, or on public holidays.

"Michaelia Cash keeps saying that they know exactly what’s happening with interns and the amount of hours they’re working – yet the department has admitted they don’t even collect information on the amount of hours interns work," Labor shadow minister for employment services Ed Husic told BuzzFeed News. "If they can’t do that how do they know that young people are being treated properly in workplaces?"



Minister Cash also appears to have claimed PaTH is more successful than it actually is.