The voluntary internship program unveiled in the 2016 budget was due to start in April and would have paid up to 30,000 unemployed or disadvantaged young people to complete an internship of up to 12 weeks.



Businesses would have been given an upfront payment of $1,000 to host the intern while the intern would have received up to $100 a week on top of their existing welfare payments.

On Tuesday the government removed the bill from the Senate notice paper after One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts unexpectedly announced the party's opposition to the program on Monday.



In a late-night speech Roberts said the party opposed the bill because it would result in more payroll tax for employers.

"Our constituents in Queensland and across Australia repeat this same comment: taxation is killing employment," he said.

The far right senator described the PaTH program as "yet another churn" policy that he doubted would decrease unemployment.

"Where is the cost-benefit analysis for this bill?" he asked.

"Why does the government expect us to merely pass this bill when it has given us no cost-benefit analysis, no financial and economic analysis, no financial and economic justification and not even some qualitative justification?"