Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

She is not even here. I can see her newsletter now: ‘150 Jobs Slashed from Bass’. Hear, hear! I see the members opposite cheering about 150 jobs lost in Bass as well as 150 jobs lost in my electorate. It is a disgrace.

The expansion of call centres in regional areas makes sense for a range of reasons. It makes good economic sense as well as good service delivery sense. We have in regional areas a supply of labour available to do a range of tasks, but currently, in many cases, people are underemployed. A call centre would draw on what is perhaps currently an underutilised labour force. But what is this government doing? It is not creating opportunities in regional areas. It is not looking to improve the unemployment situation in regional areas. What it is doing is ripping jobs out of regional Australia. The member for Bass did not bother to front on the RDO. I am here putting the case forward for my electorate. The Prime Minister is not here.

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