Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's good to see the Prime Minister is going to be back in parliament again with long pants on. He'll be missing the close company of his image advisor. He can cover his knees, but he can't cover the fact his government is leaving people behind. While the Prime Minister and the Treasurer declare that the recession is over and give themselves a trophy, 2.4 million Australians are either out of work or looking for work. But the group of Australians who have been ignored the most by this government are older workers. For this group of Australians, the government has shown utter contempt.

One in every five Australians from the ages of 55 to 65 is out of work. One third of them were made redundant from their last job. Although they know the statistics say one thing, they know they're not going to get another job. The best they can hope for is to go on an unemployment benefit of $40 a day and eat into their savings until they qualify for the age pension. They're discriminated against in job interviews, and the government makes this worse by providing subsidies to younger workers, pushing them to the back of the queue. To rub salt in the wounds, they see your government paying $4,000 a day in free flights to the former finance minister, who described their unemployment as— (Time expired)