Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Given the opportunity to speak on a bill about youth unemployment, we instead get many minutes of union talking points, the politics of division, the rhetoric of billionaires and those in poverty in Australia, the same sorts of things, sadly, that we get from the member for Wakefield and others on the other side of House.

In addressing the issues raised in the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Youth Employment and Other Measures) Bill 2015 it is important we ensure the full story about employment and youth unemployment in particular is addressed. I have heard recent speakers from the Labor Party refer to the current unemployment rate as being too high. Any rate of unemployment is too high. We need to do everything we can to make sure it is as low as it can be, but I remind those opposite that prior to the 2013 election when the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook was released by the member for Lilley, the Treasurer of Australia at the time, he predicted that the unemployment rate in Australia would be 6.25 per cent in the June quarter of 2015. So having beaten Labor's own forecast, somehow the current unemployment rate is too high. Indeed, I would say to those opposite that we have made significant inroads into and improvements in the unemployment rate, particularly when it comes to my state of Tasmania. Hearing members opposite lecturing the government on economic performance and unemployment is a bit like the sound a wet lettuce makes when it hits the side of the colander at home. It is a lot of bluff and bluster but it really does not have a lot of veracity behind it when you think about what occurred with Labor's own forecasts relating to unemployment.

Everyone knows that Labor have dealt themselves out of the rational debate when it comes to the economy. Australians are aware of their false claims when they talked about achieving a surplus time and time again. They know about the Labor government's forecast in 2012 of a $2 billion budget surplus which, at their 2013 budget, suddenly became an $18 billion deficit and then in the aftermath of the 2013 election turned out to be a $48 billion deficit. When you add up the maths, that is a negative $50 billion turnaround in our economic circumstances. You do not need to be Einstein to realise that when the economic circumstances of the country experience such a turnaround that has an impact on things like employment, jobs and our economic freedom of action. But it gets worse. Because of debt repayments and Labor locking in spending growth above inflation, we are in fact spending $100 million every day more than this country earns from taxpayers and businesses. We have to borrow that money and pay interest on it. The opportunity cost by any measure is appalling. We could build two new schools every day if we were not spending more than we earn. We could build many kilometres of new roads or a new teaching hospital each and every month just in the funds we spend paying the interest on Labor's debt.

It is now a matter of historical record that our debt under Labor went from zero at the 2007 election to a trajectory of $667 billion in just six years. That means that each and every single month this country borrows $1,000 million dollars just to pay the interest on Labor's debt. I mention that statistic because, if we are talking about our economic future, if we are talking about our freedom of action, if we are talking about opportunities for our children and grandchildren, those statistics will have a compelling impact on their job opportunities in the future.

Employment and the need to create local jobs is the No. 1 issue in my state of Tasmania. So the words 'youth unemployment' in this bill are particularly compelling. When you think about the broader unemployment rate in Tasmania at the 2013 election, it had an '8' in front of it. The rate was 8.1 per cent. In recent months it has been under seven per cent, certainly representing a move in the right direction.

And it certainly needed to after 16 years of state Labor government in my home state—state Labor and Labor-Green government—concurrently in the last six years of that with Labor and Labor-Greens government here in Canberra. I say that the continuing fall in Tasmania's jobless rate in 2015 is encouraging. It is the best it has been in six years. There is certainly more work to be done, and the policies of the Abbott and Hodgman governments are firmly focused on creating more local jobs.

I will dwell on some of the green shoots of recovery. Over the course of 2014, 13,400 jobs were created in Tasmania. This compares to a decrease of 5,400 jobs through 2013, a year when federal Labor was responsible for the economy. Tasmania's housing sector, I am pleased to say, is showing strong increases in building approvals over the past year. Residential building approvals for Tasmania over the 12 months to April 2015, which is the latest available data point, were 42.9 per cent higher than the previous 12 months.

So it is important to emphasise that the measures in this bill are not stand-alone and should not be considered as stand-alone by those opposite. In the 2015-16 budget the government announced the Growing Jobs and Small Business package which increases support services to those impacted by changes in this bill. As part of the Growing Jobs and Small Business package, from the day after the budget a higher subsidy payment of up to $6,500—doubling from $3,250—is available under the Tasmanian Jobs Program and includes a payment of $3,250 for part-time places.

To strengthen Tasmania's business investment and jobs, a $203 million expansion was made to the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme. From January 2016 the scheme will be extended to goods going to markets not currently covered by the scheme. Indeed, goods that are destined for international markets through the Port of Melbourne will get that $700 per shipping container assistance to make sure that our producers are able to ship their goods in a way that equalises their costs with what it might cost elsewhere on the mainland to ship similar goods.

The trifecta of free trade agreements negotiated by the coalition in 2014 will also have a significant impact on jobs, particularly in my home state of Tasmania, whose clean, fresh, quality produce will grace growing Asian markets. And when you think about the growth of those markets, Deputy Speaker, it is truly an economic miracle that is coming to the Asia-Pacific. At the moment there are in the region of 500 million people constituting the middle class in that region. The estimates are that in the next 15 years that 500 million will grow to 1.7 billion people entering the middle class, from India to Asia. That will be an extraordinary economic miracle as people are raised out of poverty. And as they are raised out of poverty, here we sit astride the Indian and Pacific oceans in a region that is going to be the engine room of global prosperity for the next 50 years. What an incredible opportunity that is going to be! We have heard the evidence in this place, of Reid Fruits—marvellous producers of cherries in Tasmania—that, by virtue of the free trade agreements signed in the last year, have grown their exports from five tonnes to 185 tonnes.

The Treasurer was in my home state of Tasmania only a few weeks ago, talking to a local fisherman, Karl Krause, who showed the Treasurer some of his documents where a year and a half ago he was selling his crayfish at $65 kilo. They are beautiful crayfish, caught east of Flinders Island, near Babel Island. I have been fishing with Mr Krause. Instead of $65 a kilo he is now getting $100 a kilo for those crayfish. So when I say that we are beneficiaries of that trifecta of free trade agreements, I know that Karl Krause and others want to hug the trade minister, Andrew Robb, for concluding them in such a wonderful way. They are going to be strategic enablers of my state's prosperity for many years into the future.

The government is also investing a billion dollars in Tasmanian infrastructure, including $400 million for the Midland Highway, $38 million for the Hobart airport runway extension and an additional $60 million for tranche 2 irrigation schemes, including a long-overdue irrigation scheme in my electorate of Bass. This will be near Scottsdale and it will provide 95 per cent water certainty. It will enable the conversion of marginal farmland into something that is much more productive so that people will be able to grow more, produce more and export more, to tap into those markets that have been enlarged and enhanced through that trifecta of free trade deals that I talked about earlier. The tranche 2 irrigation schemes—and that $60 million of federal investment will deliver approximately 40,000 megalitres of water to landholders and communities who connect to those schemes.

I would say to those opposite that when it comes to creating more local jobs, when it comes to linking strategy and government investment to the tactical things happening on the ground that are actually going to create those local jobs, then what you are seeing from the Abbott government, working in cooperation with the Hodgman government, is practical action to deliver those jobs into the future.

You would have thought that if this were such an important issue for the opposition that they would have done more about it while they had six years in government in Canberra and while they had 16 years in government in Tasmania—to actually do something more practical in some of these areas. Indeed, in his budget reply speech, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, did not mention the issue of youth unemployment at all. And, to date, Labor has committed a paltry $21 million towards tackling this issue. By comparison, the coalition is leading by example and has committed 15 times more money to help 15 times more people. Our $330 million youth employment strategy is a jobs plan directly targeted at helping young people who are most at risk of long-term unemployment through Transition to Work and intensive support programs. The strategy also provides targeted support to vulnerable and at-risk groups like people with mental illnesses and refugees. So I say to those opposite: stop your ceaseless complaining; stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution.

We heard from the member for Wakefield during his contribution to this debate union attacks on some of our programs. He attacked our Work for the Dole program. In my electorate of Bass, people are benefiting from these programs. Our National Work Experience program initiative, despite its proven success, is giving people on welfare real job experience that leads to paid work. I have heard members opposite have a go at the Green Army program—the Green Army program!—as if this is something that is not treating these young people equitably. I have had two Green Army programs rolled out in my electorate of Bass from Kings Bridge to the Tailrace and from Kings Bridge to Duck Reach. I have talked to these young people who are not only doing environmental projects that are enormously valuable for our community but also learning the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are going to help them get jobs into the future.

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