Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to questions without notice asked by Senators Gallagher and Watt today relating to the economy.

This week we have seen this government deflect, deny and attack Labor instead of listening to the concerns of everyday Australians who are hurting from higher bills and economic uncertainty. What we have seen is Liberal-Nationals senators opposite behaving like an opposition, ranting and raving about Labor—they even managed to rant about Queensland Labor today—when they should be acting like a third-term government, getting on with a plan. But we know they have no plan. The RBA and the IMF have both called for Australia to invest in infrastructure to stimulate the economy and create more jobs. But, instead of listening to those concerns, the government wants to talk about Labor, and the economy continues to slide backwards.

I thought I might take this opportunity to talk about youth unemployment and the figures that were released today. It's fair to say that the performance of the minister for youth this week has been pretty hopeless. Again, today we've learnt that the youth unemployment rate has not changed. There's been no change to that figure, and that should alarm everyone in this place. But it is the performance of the minister for youth outside this chamber that matters the most. Young people are struggling to pay their bills, to get the training and skills that they need, and they are facing higher rates of unemployment under this government. After six years, there's no plan—nothing but attacks on Labor. Today we learnt that 28.2 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds are underemployed. Of people aged 20 to 24 years, the underemployment rate is 15.5 per cent. Those are shocking statistics, and those are the national statistics.

I want to raise the unemployment rates of regional Queensland because they're not getting much attention in this place from the other side. The other side are happy to ask questions about Queensland Labor. They're happy to point the finger. They probably wish they were back in Queensland—it's a fantastic place to be—but they're not in the parliament of Queensland asking questions of the Queensland Labor government. They are the government; they've been the government for six years, and it's time they start acting like it. In Townsville, the unemployment rate has gone from 5.8 per cent when Labor left office in 2013 to 8.3 per cent. Concerningly, under the Liberals, the median job search time hit an extraordinary 34 weeks in October last year—34 weeks to find a job in Townsville last year. That's 34 weeks on Newstart waiting to find a job. And the story isn't much better for youth unemployment. The youth unemployment rate in Townsville for 15- to 24-year-olds has gone from 8.9 per cent when Labor left office in 2013 to 17.1 per cent under the Liberals. The youth unemployment rate in Townsville has almost doubled. Instead of getting adequate responses about how the government is going to deal with this, we get deflection and denial and attacks and more questions about Labor than answers about what the government is going to do to fix this problem.

The issue is the same in Mackay. The median job search time has gone from eight weeks when Labor was in office to 23 weeks under the Liberals. It has almost tripled. When Labor left office there were 5,000 people in Mackay looking for work, and now there are 6,500 people looking for work. That's an extra 1,500 people in Mackay without a job. Youth unemployment in Mackay—the minister for youth might like to write this one down—for 15- to 24-year-olds has gone from 8.6 per cent to 15.5 per cent under the Liberals. Older people have also been let down. The unemployment rate for persons aged 45 and above in Mackay has gone from 2.6 per cent to 5.6 per cent under the Liberals. So, if you want to talk about Labor, why don't you talk about the unemployment rates when Labor was in office and what they are now under your government.

But these statistics relate to real people living in regional Queensland. My plea to this government is not to ignore them. Stop attacking Labor and start doing something to fix the problem. There are plenty of things that you can do to help young people in regional Queensland. Instead of doing anything of them—instead of talking about them in this place—you're here attacking Labor every single day. Well, the jig is up, and people are onto you.