Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Training and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking on the Social Security Amendment (Liquid Assets Waiting Period) Bill 2009 I would like to make some comments about the bill and indicate that the opposition will not be opposing this bill. This measure would allow someone who is claiming Newstart allowance, youth allowance, sickness allowance or Austudy to have a doubling of the liquid assets previously available. They were $2,500 for singles or $5,000 otherwise. People who did have liquid assets above these maximum reserves, would have gone on a liquid assets waiting period. Doubling the maximum reserve of the liquid assets for a two-year period will have the effect of reducing the length of the liquid assets waiting period. The bill will also amend the Social Security Act 1991 to exclude the surrender value of life insurance policies from the definition of ‘liquid assets’ for social security purposes. This bill overturns a savings measure which the former Howard government introduced in the 1996 budget.

In light of the fact that unemployment has now risen to its highest level in four years, these measures are appropriate and will not be opposed. What is concerning, however, is that this is indicative of a much more general approach which is being taken by the government. Rather than having ambitions to create jobs, this is a government which seems to have given up on that front and is now just preparing people for unemployment. Mr Deputy Speaker Sidebottom, you might remember that 25 years ago Bob Hawke was elected on a promise to create 500,000 jobs. That was a government which actually met that promise. We have a Prime Minister who promised before Christmas to create 75,000 jobs. He has scurried away from that promise. He will not stand by the promise he made prior to Christmas to create 75,000 jobs. His ambitions now for Australian workers, for school leavers and for mothers returning to the workforce are now so slow that he will not stand by his commitment prior to Christmas to create 75,000 jobs.

We should look at the track record so far. Before Christmas, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised to create 75,000 jobs. In the month of December, the government created 200 jobs across the whole of Australia. In the month of January, the government created 300 jobs across the whole of Australia. In the month of February, they created 1,700 jobs. So, over a three-month period, the Rudd government created 2,200 jobs. Over 12 years, the Howard government created 2.2 million jobs—1.2 million of them full time—and at the same time saw wages increase in real terms by more than 20 per cent. The Prime Minister promised 75,000 jobs and, in the last three months, the government created 2,000 jobs. We would like to know where the other 73,000 jobs are. He has come up 73,000 short.

When we look at this government’s record on unemployment, it is not a happy one. There are now 157,900 more Australians unemployed than there were 12 months ago. So over the last 12 months we have seen an extra 157,900 Australians receiving unemployment benefits, and the bill that we are debating today will only see those numbers increase further. We have a forecast from the government that there will be 300,000 more Australians out of work by June next year, and yet in January and February alone we saw about 80,000 extra Australians receiving unemployment benefits. So we are already seeing that these forecasts from the government of an unemployment rate of seven per cent by June next year—an extra 300,000 Australians out of work by June next year—may actually turn out to be quite optimistic.

Members may be aware that Anna Bligh has promised to create 100,000 jobs over the next three years. Members should be aware that there are now 19,300 more Queenslanders out of work than there were in November 2007, when the Rudd government came to power. So what we see is a Prime Minister who no longer has any ambitions to create jobs. He has given up on that front and is now just happy to prepare people for unemployment. In question time when we asked about jobs and job creation, the answers that we got were about redundancy payments. Rather than talking about working families, the government is preparing people not to be working families but to be redundancy families.

The ABS labour force figures for February 2009, which were released last Thursday, showed a 0.4 per cent increase in the unemployment rate, pushing the Australian unemployment rate to 5.2 per cent. This is a massive surge in unemployment in the space of just one month. It is the largest increase in the unemployment rate since 1991, and we are now back to where we were in March 2005. When we see these statistics, they are not simply statistics. For every person there is an enormous human cost and an enormous social cost in losing a job or in not being able to get a job to begin with.

Youth unemployment is now the highest it has been since 2001. As we know from the previous recessions, in the early eighties and early nineties, there was an enormous cost for those generations who never became established in the workforce. Many of them still have only a marginal attachment to the workforce. It is absolutely critical that the Rudd government address the issue of youth unemployment. One of the great disappointments is that, with all of the money that has been thrown around, there has been no specific initiative targeted at young Australians.

We have a Treasurer who is unable to state how many jobs the government plans to create in its first term. He is unwilling or too afraid to have Treasury revise the unemployment forecasts. This is the same Treasurer who, in his book Postcode: the Splintering of a Nation, talked about the regional differences in disadvantage in Australia. That makes today’s report by the Centre of Full Employment and Equity very timely because it shows that the impact of these jobless figures will not be uniform. The impact of increasing joblessness will not be uniform; it will hit some suburbs much harder than others. The authors of the report have said that they suspect that suburbs which have a high proportion of people in industries like manufacturing, construction, retail, accommodation and tourism, a high proportion of workers with no post-school qualifications and a high proportion of part-time workers will be the suburbs that will be most affected. You will see an impact on what are historically areas of social disadvantage. They will be hit hard. But you will also see many suburbs which they have described as ones of emerging disadvantage. These are what we would call mortgage belt suburbs, where people have had jobs, have mortgages and are stretched. These people will be hit for a six by rising unemployment and by the lack of any strategy on jobs from this government. In his book the Treasurer stated:

We must not concede defeat; we should not accept a culture of dependency.

And yet this is exactly the approach the government are taking. They are preparing people for unemployment. They are not prepared to create jobs. They are not prepared to even state an ambition to create jobs. They are refusing to address the fundamentals, to promote confidence, to promote growth and to promote employment. Instead of focusing on creating jobs and ensuring job security for Australian workers, they are rolling out plans for redundancy.

It is crucial for all members to remember that history tells us that unemployment can increase rapidly. In the early eighties we saw it go from the low point to the high point in five quarters—just over a year. In the early nineties, unemployment went from around five or six per cent to almost 11 per cent—in just two years. We know that, once people lose their jobs or when people do not get jobs, it takes a long time to get unemployment down. Sadly, it will be a long time before Australia has an unemployment rate with a ‘4’ in front of it again. The problem is: when unemployment rises rapidly, it is significantly harder to effect a reverse.

On every conceivable measure, the government seem to have given up. The government refuse to accept responsibility for the rising unemployment. The Prime Minister does not accept that there is one single job loss in Australia which is due to his government. He does not accept that there is one single extra person unemployed due to his government. The government are preparing people for unemployment. The front page of today’s Australian highlights some of the problems with the government’s very own policies. While their own forecast for an emissions trading scheme does predict a 10.1 per cent decrease in economic growth as a result of the emissions trading scheme, some regional centres will be hit very hard. Areas like Mount Isa, Gladstone and Newcastle will be hit hard on jobs. This scheme will be job destroying, especially in those regional centres. The mayors understand this. They understand that the important thing—and why the government were elected—is to create jobs, support jobs and protect jobs. This indicates that there are a lot of problems with the government’s emissions trading scheme. Their emissions trading scheme has very few friends. It is not a jobs-friendly, jobs-enabling emissions trading scheme; it is a jobs-destroying emissions trading scheme.

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