Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to follow the parliamentary secretary, and I do not doubt her commitment to this very important topic. I do not doubt her earnestness and her wish to grow jobs in this economy. Unfortunately, I doubt the intent of the government she is a member of. So far the government has shown an appalling record on job creation and planning for the jobs of the new economy. There can be no higher duty, other than national defence, for a federal government than to support the employment prospects of Australians.

The previous speaker picked figures and was absolutely right. Some industries will move up and some will move down, but let's look at the national figures as a whole—and they are very concerning. We have unemployment at a 12-year high. We have got record underemployment. We have got more people underemployed in terms of the percentage than during the eighties recession or the nineties recession. We have 190,000 people classified as long-term unemployed—the highest number ever. We have got 25 per cent of people who are unemployed in this country classified as long-term unemployed. That is also the highest ratio for that figure. By any measure, we have a jobs crisis in this country that is occurring under the lazy government opposite.

In my home region, we have got youth unemployment at 18.6 per cent. Just picture that for a moment. Almost one in five young people in my region who are looking for a job cannot find a job. We are facing a lost generation of young people with the enormous societal consequences that will have. The general unemployment rate in my region is over 10 per cent, so we are facing a jobs crisis. We urgently need action. We urgently need a government that is genuinely committed to growing the jobs of the future and planning and equipping job seekers with the best possible skills. We need a government that, in short, is supporting innovation, education and training, and unfortunately—despite all the rhetoric on the other side—their actions do not match their words.

Since coming to power, we have seen a $2 billion cut in support for innovation programs—and I will return to that in a minute—and we have seen a $2 billion cut in skills and training programs, including a billion-dollar cut to apprentices. The one that really sticks in my craw is the egregious cut to trade training centres. These centres were doing great work around Australia. They were doing great work in the high schools in my electorate and they have now been cut off. I have got five or six high schools that will not have the opportunity to get a trade training centre. I will note that the last one that opened—guess who opened it? Senator Arthur Sinodinos. He was very happy to go along, announce it and get a photo op in a local paper, but unfortunately he is a member of a government that is not supporting this great program.

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