Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Media reports today highlight that unemployment rates in the Hunter Valley, which is home to my electorate of Paterson, hit 7.6 per cent in August. In my home town of Kurri Kurri the unemployment rate was 7.5 per cent in March of this year, while the rate in Raymond Terrace, where my office is located, sat at 7.8 per cent. At that time the national average was 5.9 per cent. I'm committed to helping identify the barriers faced by people in my electorate when they're seeking work and to searching for opportunities to help communities create jobs. I was therefore delighted to welcome the Australian Jobs Taskforce to Paterson and to host two hearings, one in Kurri Kurri and one in Raymond Terrace. This federal Labor caucus committee is chaired by the member for Longman, Susan Lamb, and includes the member for Braddon, Justine Keay. They are travelling Australia to hear firsthand about grassroots challenges and solutions.

During their visits to Kurri Kurri and Raymond Terrace the member for Longman and committee secretary the member for Braddon heard some key points. Regional jobseekers face a transport barrier. There is little and infrequent public transport in many parts of the Paterson electorate. Young people navigating secondary schooling are relentlessly funnelled towards the HSC and an ATAR score and being sent on to university. Apprenticeships have acquired a second-class stigma that is not deserved, and the erosion of TAFE and VET funding is compounding the dearth of available apprenticeships; 457 visas and the transient backpacker workforce exacerbate the problems created by disappearing industries, skills gaps, the casualisation of the workforce, underworking—people can't get enough hours—and diminishing support for workers' rights.

The task force heard from employers, recruitment agencies, councils, secondary educators, young jobseekers themselves, mature long-term unemployed people, union representatives and concerned parents of their unemployed children. Their ideas on how to fix some of these problems deserve to be heard. They said: 'We need to ensure infrastructure and services are adequate or we'll not attract industries and businesses to our regions. Reliable broadband and mobile access is paramount, as is reliable and affordable energy. We need to encourage new businesses and help unemployed people create their own jobs—ones that they're truly invested in. Strong businesses lead to lower unemployment. Government spending and procurement must stipulate minimum local content in manufacturing apprenticeships and they're only successful if there are long-term industries.'

I commend the committee and I commend my community for being part of it.