Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brockman, a fellow Western Australian, for that question. The Morrison government is committed to putting in place the right economic framework to support the creation of jobs, in my home state of Western Australia and, indeed, right across the economy. One of the things that we will do is support big, job-creating projects, particularly in the mining and resources sector. The Morrison government understands the contribution that the mining and resources sector makes—

Senator Abetz interjecting—

That's right, Senator Abetz, just like Joel Fitzgibbon—not just to Western Australia but also to Australia as a whole. We have already seen our economy rebounding back strongly after the COVID-19 induced recession. Unemployment is now down to 5.1 per cent. Underemployment is at its lowest level since 2014. In May, just last month, 115,000 new jobs were created. Eighty-five per cent of those new jobs were full-time jobs and 60 per cent of the 115,000 jobs went to women.

But we also know there's still more work to do. That's why the mining industry is in need of skilled workers. The Morrison government is putting in place the right policy framework so that Australians can get the skills that they require to get into the mining sector. We are doing this in a variety of ways, including through our $1 billion JobTrainer Fund, providing free or low-cost training in areas of labour market need, but also by extending the highly successful boosting apprenticeship commencements wage subsidy.

We as the Morrison government have also committed to helping the mining sector by speeding up approvals for big projects and cutting red and green tape. Don't forget that we are the side of politics that put forward reforms to greenfields agreements that would have given the mining industry certainty in their industry investment. (Time expired)