House debates
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Questions without Notice
Employment and Workplace Relations
2:38 pm
Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House how the government’s employment and workplace relations policies are contributing to job creation for young Australians? Are there any threats to that contribution?
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Stirling for his question. I note that when Labor was last in government in 1996 the unemployment rate in Stirling was 9.4 per cent. Today it is 5.4 per cent and I think it is going to go lower.
Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Thanks to a state Labor government. It carries the rest of the nation!
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
That is right: Brian Burke created low unemployment! Young Australians today have more employment opportunities, thanks to a lot of the initiatives of the Howard government, than at any other time in the nation’s history. In the past 11 years—
Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Edwards interjecting
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member for Cowan has been warned. He continues to interject. He will remove himself under standing order 94(a).
The member for Cowan then left the chamber.
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Youth unemployment is still too high at 9.7 per cent, but it is certainly lower than the 15.2 per cent when Labor was last in government. However, teenage wages have risen by 6½ per cent in real terms, whereas under 13 years of Labor they fell backwards 5.1 per cent. What we have to do is to try and encourage young people into jobs. So I was quite alarmed when I saw a notice go out at a Kiama public school for a meeting with ‘John Robinson’ of Unions New South Wales—they misspelt John Robertson. He was going to conduct a lesson for students on how to get a job. I thought to myself, ‘This would be interesting.’ It turns out that Mr Robertson’s lesson delivered was about anti federal government legislation and was anti-Work Choices. He was encouraging students not to get a job but to vote Labor—in a New South Wales public school.
Despite the furore—I read the Illawarra Mercury for this—at least one other Illawarra school, Keira High School, is likely to hold a similar meeting, the principal said. The principal, who happens to be the vice-president of the New South Wales Teachers Federation, said ‘it would benefit pupils who have entered or were about to enter the workforce’. So I asked myself: what is it that the New South Wales Teachers Federation are doing to encourage young people to get jobs? I came across a CD-ROM put out by the New South Wales Teachers Federation. The CD-ROM shows teachers how to spread the union’s anti-Work Choices campaign using every subject in the HSC syllabus, from drama and physical education to food technology. This CD-ROM, issued by the Teachers Federation to careers advisers in the schools—rather than teaching the careers advisers how to teach young people how to get a job—is trying to turn every student into a victim, trying to generate a culture of—
Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Hardgrave interjecting
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
pessimism amongst young people. That is what it is about. The manual has class tests for students, including fictitious case studies such as Toula, a year-12 pupil forced to accept $1.50 an hour at a part-time job. It also urges PE teachers to exploit the industrial relations side of sport as students learn to develop and practise enterprise skills as they organise, conduct and evaluate physical activity. History teachers are urged to steer their classes towards subjects such as ‘The role of unions in participatory democracy’. This is what the Labor Party is about. The Labor Party and the union movement are trying to create a culture of victimisation amongst young people—
Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Hardgrave interjecting
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Order! The member for Moreton is warned!
Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
rather than encouraging them to get jobs, to develop careers and to earn a living. This is what the Labor Party is about. A vote for Labor is a vote for the union bosses. I see the member for Grayndler laughing there. I do not see the New South Wales education minister saying this is outrageous. We cannot expect the New South Wales education minister to conduct an investigation into the unions going into schools. We cannot expect a New South Wales education minister to do that! That would be like asking the fox to investigate occupational health and safety in the henhouse, wouldn’t it? That is what it would be like. The Labor Party is for union bosses and about protecting union bosses; the coalition is about jobs, jobs for young people that lead to well-paid careers.