Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, as usual, economists' predictions were wrong. They predicted jobs growth last month of 15,000 and a steady unemployment rate. Instead we lost 3,700 jobs and the unemployment rate increased from 5.8 per cent to six per cent. This is the highest figure since 2003—over a decade. It is higher than the peak of the global financial crisis. The number of people out of work is well over 700,000 and the workforce participation rate is at its lowest level in years. In my home state of Victoria the unemployment rate is 6.4 per cent. It is the worst since January 2002.

For the past four months, I have consistently drawn attention to our rising unemployment and urged us to rein in our out-of-control migrant worker programs. I have pointed out that the 457 visa temporary worker program is completely uncapped and that over a million temporary visa holders have work rights in Australia. I have pointed out that last year a record 129,000 permanent migrants arrived under the permanent migrant worker program. It is called the 'skilled migration' program but it is not in fact about nuclear physicists or neurosurgeons. The largest category of entrants last year were cooks and hairdressers also made it into the top five. Apparently, notwithstanding the great success of My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef, we are unable to find or train young Australian cooks.

Years ago there was talk about a real wages overhang. But what we have here is a migration program overhang where we continue to bring in record numbers of migrant workers long after the economic conditions used to justify these programs have melted away—after Ford, Holden and Toyota have all announced their departure, when Forge in Western Australia yesterday sacked 1,300 workers, and when jobs at Rio, Electrolux and BP are going. It has to stop. The size of the temporary and permanent migrant worker programs is a recipe for more young Australians to be out of work, with all the negative consequences that unemployment has in relation to mental health, drugs, crime, and social harmony.

If we do not do this, where will the workers from Ford, Holden, Toyota, Gove, Electrolux, BP and Forge go? The market theory, enthusiastically promoted by this government, is that these workers can be retrained for, and should be prepared to work in, other areas. This theory falls flat on its face when those workers are subjected to ferocious competition for low-paid jobs from both temporary and permanent migrant workers. We are on a road which leads to growing and long-term unemployment, social disadvantage and hardship, and an outsized welfare bill.

Unemployment is not about statistics. This hardship has a human face. Yesterday my colleague the member for Moreton put in a job advertisement for one of his constituents and today I want to do the same thing for one of mine. Robert Livesay is a 59-year-old maintenance fitter and turner. As a qualified fitter and turner, he worked at Holden in Port Melbourne for 20 years, doing maintenance fitting and production machining. He has a forklift certificate, a working at heights certificate, a confined space entry certificate and so on. He was made redundant by Holden back in 2008 and since then has only found occasional work.

He wants a job and he sought my help in finding one. I asked him about working in the mining industry. He said he has applied frequently for mining jobs and is prepared to travel at his own expense. For all that, he has managed to land a grand total of a couple of weeks work. I ask any employer who might have something for Robert to contact my office.

There are three claims that I often hear from some of those opposite and from some employers, economists, and media commentators: first, that workers who lose their jobs in manufacturing will find other, better jobs in other industries; second, that our welfare bill is too high and that people on unemployment benefits and disability pensions need to get off their backsides and find work; and, third, that Australia is short of workers and needs to bring in more migrant workers. Robert Livesay is a living rebuttal of each of those claims and I say to anyone who wants to make those claims: either put up or shut up! Find Robert a job. If Robert is too old or his skills and experience are not useful to us, cut the charade and stop spouting this market fundamentalist rubbish.