Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Hansard source

I will not take up the entire time allotted; I just want to respond to the shadow minister who just rose to contribute to the debate on the amendments. I remind the House that, in relation to the very long term unemployed, things have not got better in the last decade; they have got worse. In 1998 there were one in 10 jobseekers defined as very long term unemployed. It is now almost one in four—

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