Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Colleagues may be aware that my electorate in the north-west of Tasmania, which includes the west coast, has met and is still meeting challenging times. We share that with a number of other regions throughout Australia. Tonight I want to place on the record that this government has worked hard with my community to meet these challenges and assist those in my community to obtain re-employment. Unfortunately some have lost their jobs in manufacturing, particularly at the two paper mills that were underinvested in for years, at our local carpet factory and at McCain's in the processing area. These businesses have been going through some structural changes for some time and have been affected by commodity prices and the high Australian dollar.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Without snide remarks from the other side—I do not know what you wish to gain by doing that—

Opposition members interjecting—

This is just a nonsense, and you know it.

Opposition members interjecting—

You would know because you are an expert on just about everything, but nothing. People have lost their jobs by the hundreds in my electorate. The government through a number of initiatives has sought to re-employ them. Many programs have been successful and I will highlight a couple in particular. The North West and Northern Tasmania Innovation and Investment Fund is effectively a contribution by the state government and the federal government of some $17 million. Applications were called for businesses to put in their own investment and to grow jobs and be sustainable into the future. They were the essential criteria of it. Out of the 123 applications, 36 projects were approved. They totalled, with their own investment as well, nearly $35 million. Members opposite think that is nothing. We are talking about people's lives and their jobs. There was $35 million in terms of growing their businesses and employing people.

It is estimated that 417 jobs will be created, realising that with the two paper mills 420 people were unemployed. To date nearly 370 people have been employed and it is not complete. That successful program has allowed the economy to diversify in my region so we do not just rely on one or two major manufacturers to employ people. I thank the government very much and I thank all of the businesses that have invested in themselves and their people and have been able to retain so many more.

I want to comment on a program that was devised through ForestWorks Learning and Skill Development in a major JSA in my region, the O group. They have localised the attempts to place and manage workers. Through the 420 jobs, they have managed to tag each and every person that was retrenched and deal with them individually to seek to place those people through local JSAs, training organisations and employers. The success of that has been quite remarkable.

I would recommend that forest workers program to those people who have the unfortunate circumstances of having a large number of people retrenched in their regions. This is a model, along with the North West and Northern Tasmanian Innovation and Investment Fund, that will allow people to find jobs instead of falling through the nets. What may seem a joke to some of my colleagues on the other side from Western Australia, is a real living thing happening in our regions. This government has sought to assist those people as much as possible and has been relatively successful in doing so. (Time expired)