Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As of today, there are over 800,000 Australians who are unemployed. This is an appalling waste and it is a crisis. It is also over 800,000 reasons for a plan from this government for the jobs of today but, more importantly, for the jobs of tomorrow. I know jobs are the No. 1 issue in the electorate of Scullin; that is what people have been telling me. I know it is probably the No. 1 issue right around the country. While we have seen hubris from government members about the supposed impact of its budget of a week or so ago on jobs, what it demonstrates is that this is a government without a vision for the future. Its only vision for jobs is to punish those without them—to continue to blame the victim. This government talks about jobs in the same way it talks about fairness. In a context where unemployment is predicted, by the budget papers, to go up, not down, and wage growth, similarly, will continue to be at record lows, living standards are under pressure.

That is why Labor's bold and confident vision for jobs is so important to Australia, as is the Leader of the Opposition's offer of bipartisanship on this crisis issue. Labor presents a stark alternative to the government's inaction, a stark alternative that must be heeded: to invest in the future, to invest in a plan for jobs and, critically, to invest in giving people the skills that will enable them to do the jobs of the future.