Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The minister interjects it was nothing to do with the mining boom, but we are now seeing job losses even in that robust industry under this new government. The state of the global economy only makes this issue more pressing. Since the Rudd Labor government came to power, business and consumer confidence has steadily fallen to lows not seen even under the Keating Labor government in the early 1990s and unemployment has steadily risen from the record low of four per cent in January this year. In the 12 months since the Rudd Labor government came to power there have also been large and well-publicised layoffs across the country. According to the OECD in their report released today, the unemployment rate is expected to rise from the current level of 4.3 per cent to 5.3 per cent next year and then six per cent in 2010. In this time, GDP growth is expected to decrease from 4.4 per cent in 2007 to 1.7 per cent this year. The National Australia Bank’s most recent economic outlook survey has unemployment increasing to over 6.5 per cent, well in excess of the government’s own forecast. Yet no matter where we look we see the same theme coming from the Rudd Labor government. That is no plan to save Australian jobs. In just one year of Rudd Labor government the resilience of the labour market in this country is now looking shaky, and we are faced with a minister who has no plan to save the millions of Australian jobs that are currently at risk due to the ineptitude of this new Labor government.

The government has been spending the coalition’s hard earned surplus—we have heard today that the government is about to go into deficit—and we now have the OECD saying that the effectiveness of the federal government’s $10.4 billion economic stimulus package may be limited if confidence is not restored. A Sensis consumer report released earlier this year highlighted the concerns that Australians have about their financial future. In particular, the report noted that unemployment has not been on the nation’s radar for some time, but that since May concern about this issue has risen more than for any other issue.

The government’s leading indicator of employment for November, released by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, confirmed that employment prospects are continuing to decline. This indicator has now fallen for 10 consecutive months. Earlier this month we saw the Treasurer release Labor’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which listed off a series of policy responses to the current economic crisis. Yet again—this will come as no surprise to my colleagues in the coalition—the document contained not one reference to a government plan to save Australian jobs, despite providing confirmation of a slowdown in employment growth and a significant increase in job losses.

We have seen the Treasurer try and tell us that the new economic security package will create over 70,000 jobs—and that was repeated in the parliament today—yet we have had no analysis, no formal modelling, and no plan from the government on how jobs will be created. Sadly, it appears that this theme is set to continue. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations conceded that her new regulatory framework for workplace relations will increase costs, no doubt leading to more job losses, but once again she was unable to provide any plan to save Australian jobs.

And it gets worse. In addition to the admission from the government that their new IR framework will increase costs, it is clear that the government once again has dodged their own requirements to submit a regulatory impact statement with this new legislation. If I can, I will cast members’ minds back to 17 March of this year, when the Minister for Finance and Deregulation made a ministerial statement on best practice regulation requirements—the new requirements that he was setting up for the Rudd Labor government. I would just like to read the introduction because it takes us back to an interesting phase of this government. The minister said:

Increasing Australia’s long term productive capacity is the key to maintaining downward pressure on inflation and therefore downward pressure on interest rates.

That is something we do not hear from the government any longer. He continues:

As Labor announced prior to the election, a key element in the government’s plan to increase Australia’s productivity is our deregulation agenda.

The minister went on to say:

The level of regulatory impact analysis required is greater the more significant the regulatory proposal is likely to be. A preliminary assessment must be undertaken for all regulatory proposals. Proposals likely to involve medium business compliance costs must also have a further full quantitative assessment of compliance cost implications using the Business Cost Calculator or approved equivalent. Proposals likely to have a significant impact require even greater analysis, including compliance cost quantification, to be undertaken and documented in a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS).

Yet, in one of the most significant policy documents that this government has produced in this House, what do we find under the heading ‘Regulatory analysis’? We find two paragraphs, and in them we learn that the Prime Minister has granted an exceptional circumstances exemption for these proposals at the decision-making stage.

So we had the minister for finance saying how vital it is that the government conforms to its own requirements for a regulatory impact statement, yet on one of the most significant policy documents this government has produced in its 12 months in office they exempt themselves from the requirement for one of these regulatory impact statements.

On this side of the House we know that it is not good enough to put in place a workplace regulatory framework and stand back and expect that jobs are going to be created out of thin air. The government has just sat back and watched the unemployment rate increase and listened to the forecasts of increasing job losses as the alarm bells get louder and louder, yet they have provided no plan to this parliament on exactly how they intend to save Australian jobs.

Incredibly, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, despite conceding that the new framework will increase costs for employers, has not required a detailed, rigorous analysis of the new framework and how her new legislation will impact on Australian jobs. It appears that the minister for employment—despite her or her representatives attending at least 50 meetings on the regulatory framework for the workplace relations system—cannot even find time to talk about creating or protecting jobs, which is the main issue that is facing her in her portfolio.

A review of the speeches made by the minister for employment over the past 12 months reveals that she never, ever mentions or addresses the issue. Sometimes it can be difficult in this place to measure ministerial performance. The measures of success or failure can be hazy and clouded in the rhetorical battles that occur in this chamber. But when you are the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations you have absolutely nowhere to hide. You have one very clear indicator of your performance. You can be judged on your success or failure by the rising or falling of the rate of unemployment. If it goes down, as it did under successive ministers in the Howard government, then you have been a success. If it goes up, as it has been doing under this government—if Australians are losing their jobs in increasing numbers under your tenure—then you have clearly failed.

Not only does this government not have a plan to save Australian jobs or to create Australian jobs, they are wilfully ignoring this issue by their actions. It is time that this minister, who has not had the courtesy to appear in the chamber for this important debate, faced up to the biggest issue in all of her portfolios—the one that she refuses to mention, the elephant in the room that she is determined to ignore: the issue of saving Australian jobs.

See this speech in context