Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to be contributing to this debate. It is a very important debate. It is really about which side of this chamber cares about jobs. We have a very strong record—a good legacy. When confronted by the global financial crisis we responded—in a way that those opposite would not have responded—to support and defend jobs. There is no doubt that without the response to the GFC by the former Labor government we would have seen up to 200,000 people lose their jobs. Indeed, that is always the case. When it comes to defending workers in this country, it is always Labor that does so. So it is not entirely surprising—it is not surprising at all—that we now have the highest number of unemployed in Australia since 1994. The last time we saw unemployment figures hit 800,000 was 21 years ago. We have an unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent, a very high unemployment rate.

What is also quite disturbing is that what was once the engine room and the powerhouse of our economy, Western Australia, has a unemployment rate higher than the national average. I think it would come as a surprise to many Western Australians they have an unemployment rate higher than the national unemployment rate. That is as a result of the government not having a plan to deliver jobs when there is clearly a transition taking place in our economy. There are significant changes occurring in our economy, not least of all in the mining sector, yet the government has failed to anticipate that change and partner with business and industry to ensure that the people who are soon to lose jobs in that sector will be able to find other opportunities in the labour market. I think that is the concern that workers have. Whether they are in the electorate of Dawson, in regional Queensland or in other parts of this magnificent country, there are people who are really quite concerned about their job prospects.

There are almost 300,000 young people who are unemployed, not earning or learning—almost 300,000 young people. In some areas of this country, we have a youth unemployment crisis. When in excess of 20 per cent of young Australians, more than one in five, are not earning or learning, I would say that was a crisis, because, if you are not in a position to find productive opportunities for young people, what chance do they have in life? What will it mean for their communities, for their families, when those young people are unable to find work?

This government needs to deploy better policies, it needs to engage with industry, it needs to have regional policies in place in areas of high unemployment, it needs to have some local, targeted areas deploying proper policies and it needs to invest in local employers to ensure we see a turnaround in some of those regions. But we see none of that from this government. We were promised a jobs and family budget this year, yet that budget's own forecast says that unemployment will rise to 6.5 per cent. It has already hit 6.3 per cent, but it is forecast to rise even further, and the primary cause of that increase in unemployment is the confidence-killing approach of this government.

Last year, a contractionary budget and rhetoric that was killing confidence—killing business confidence, killing consumer confidence—basically flatlined our economy. Wage growth in this country, wage growth amongst its 11.8 million workers, is at its lowest since figures was first collected. There is almost a wage recession. In some sectors of our economy, the CPI is running in excess of wage growth. That has not happened for more than 20 years. So we have a flat economy; we have very few job prospects and we have, in some parts of this country, a youth unemployment crisis. The government is failing on its watch. The Prime Minister is obsessed with one job, one job only, and that is his own job. And that is the problem. This government is focused on itself, it is divided, it is dysfunctional and it is letting the Australian people down.

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