Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

This is a very important matter of public importance. I wanted to start by referring to ABS data released today which shows that the private sector seasonally-adjusted wage growth of 2.2 per cent over the last year is the lowest rate since the Wage Price Index series started. So, as a very important indicator of how the economy is going, we have the lowest wage growth in the private sector for what would appear to be at least 20 years—a remarkable situation, particularly in light of what the Treasurer said in question time about how well the economy is going.

I also want to refer to the ABS data of last week which showed that unemployment has hit 6.2 per cent—that is, 800,000 Australians. For the first time in 21 years, the figure is in excess of 800,000. And there are 114,000 more Australians lining the unemployment queues in this country since the Abbott government was elected—that is 114,000 extra Australians on unemployment queues since the election of this government. The rate of 6.3 per cent is the same rate that was in place when the Prime Minister was the Minister for Employment, and it is higher than at any point in the terms of the last two Labor governments, and even higher than at any time during the global financial crisis, the biggest economic shock to the developed world in 70 years. Mr Speaker, we listened to the Treasurer question time today; you would have thought that this was not the case. When you listened to the Treasurer and his response to a couple of questions from government members, you would have thought unemployment is falling. Well, unfortunately, unemployment is rising in this country, and the so-called 'jobs and family budget' of the government is hurting families and hurting jobs. This is the case.

Most disturbingly—certainly for us on the side but I would hope also for members opposite—youth unemployment is 13.8 per cent in this nation. A very disturbing and damning figure insofar as the government's failure to look after young people entering the labour market—a very damning figure. Nearly 300,000 of those 800,000 are between the ages of 15 and 24—that is 295,000 young people not learning, not earning, and looking for work and failing to find work. Let us be very clear about what has happened. We had a confidence-killing budget last year, introduced by the Treasurer, which killed business confidence and killed consumer confidence. We had a government that was not only imposing a contractionary budget but it was also scaring the Australian community. We had a Treasurer and a Prime Minister last year who decided that it was their job to talk down the economy of the nation. As a result, we had very low business confidence and very low consumer confidence.

Instead, we need a government that not only wants to talk the economy up but also wants to do something about creating jobs in this country. We should not do that by turning our back on sectors of the economy, including manufacturing. We saw what happened with respect to the car industry, which was killed off by this government. The Treasurer goaded Holden and they decided to leave our shores. We saw what they did in relation to the shipbuilding industry. They insulted shipbuilders in this country. The former defence minister said that our builders 'could not build a canoe'. He might be gone, but there has been no genuine commitment across the country regardless of the government's announcement last week in relation to this area of our economy.

People know that this government is not serious about looking after that industry and whatever vote-buying announcement they made last week in South Australia, they are not serious about investing in this industry. We have yet to see them change their position on reneging on building submarines in this country. We do not see this government partnering with industry, working with industry, to maintain and create jobs. At the time of the lowest wage growth and the lowest levels of industrial disputation in this country, what do we see from this government? We see a government focusing its very limited capacities in pursuit of unions and cutting employment conditions.

Last week the Productivity Commission handed down a draft report that had, I believe, some reasonable things to say about matters pertaining to employment. I will respond to those over time and up until the finalisation of the report. The report also opened up the idea that you could possibly divide workers in this country between those who should receive penalty rates and those who should not—we do not support that. What did the Prime Minister have to say about that? The Prime Minister said: 'I think there is a case for looking again at this issue.' Minister Abetz agreed. This is a very serious matter. We have a situation where the government is willing to consider cutting penalty rates for low-paid workers in this country—retail workers and hospitality workers, many of whom rely upon those penalty rates to ensure that they can pay the bills. We do have a minister for employment—he does not seem to be supporting too many workers in this country—who, when he is not invoking the marital status of Dolce or Gabbana to oppose marriage equality and when he is not talking about the referendum in Austria about opposing marriage equality—

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