Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

While this government says it knows how important jobs are to Australian people, I am confident that this government doesn't actually know why jobs are so important to Australian people. I am confident that it does not know how dire the situation is, particularly in Queensland regional centres, when it comes to jobs. I am confident because the members opposite, if they truly knew how bad things were under their administration, would not be standing idly by and doing nothing. Let's actual utilise the money that has spent the last two years tied up in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund to deliver infrastructure to Queensland regions—infrastructure that delivers jobs. They wouldn't have been sitting around; they would be using that money. But not one cent has been allocated.

I would strongly argue that the member for Brisbane is not the person to talk to about jobs in Queensland. I find it quite remarkable that he's not here in the chamber now. It's such an important motion for him to move, and he's not here to listen to debate. While we might think that he speaks for all of Queensland, I can tell you that he doesn't. In a state that covers an area of 1.85 million square kilometres, the minuscule inner-city fragment which the member represents is not typical of Queensland. The 58 square kilometres he represents is affluent, fortunate and overrepresented in the workplace. The area he represents is quite literally the CBD of Brisbane. Yet, not that far from his electorate—just an hour away if he jumped in the car or jumped on the Caboolture train line—he could find himself in my seat of Longman and he could see people struggling. They're struggling to find work and they're struggling to get by. Unemployment is incredibly high; underemployment is even higher. Workers are watching as their basic rights are being eroded under this Liberal-National government. Yet, in the inner-city seat, the minister has the gall to condemn a state government that's actually trying to protect its local workers. It's quite remarkable that the member for Brisbane didn't stay around for such an important motion. I would ask the member for Brisbane: is the range of your world view so limited that you can't see past your 58 kilometres? Can you not see that there are people living beyond your comfortable inner-city life?

I call on you to visit us in Longman. I will show you the struggles that people are facing just over the horizon. Or you could do what I did a few weeks ago and make the voyage up north to the member for Herbert's seat. That seat picks up great areas where lots of families live and try to raise their families up in Townsville. It's a seat that the member for Brisbane's government so often turns its back on despite continual pleas for support. I call on the member for Brisbane to do what I did: come and speak to workers, employers and local members. You know what: come and speak to unions. I promise the member for Brisbane that they won't bite. I can promise him that. If he does come to visit, he'll hear things. Just driving around the city, he'll see things. He'll see a city that's been hurt by unpredictable booms and busts, and the ebbs and flows of employment and job scarcity. He'll see the effects that temporary fly-in employers with their temporary fly-in fly-out workforce have had on this city.

Let me ask you, Deputy Speaker Bird: if I were to mention Townsville's local economy, where would you think of? You might think of Pimlico, Annandale, Douglas and maybe Hermit Park. Maybe your scope would reach a little further and you might think of the Hervey Range or Crystal Creek. I doubt you would think of places like Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland or Dunedin if I asked you to think about Townsville. And yet workers from all over Australia and all over New Zealand are considered local workers. They are given local jobs and they are taking local money out from within the local economy. Furthermore, let's not forget the member for Brisbane's government's foolish endeavour to give Australian jobs to Chinese workers without true labour market testing through the Chinese free trade agreement. It was an agreement that initially lacked provisions to safeguard Australian jobs and that lacked provisions to safeguard Australian workers.

The Queensland government is doing incredible things, like the Back to Work Regional Employment Package, focusing on disadvantaged job seekers and providing an additional $15 million for a 10-year industry plan and road map. I would encourage the member for Brisbane to support the Queensland state government policy that is growing genuine local jobs. I would say to the member for Brisbane: stop wasting time with petty attacks and take some meaningful action that supports Queensland workers.

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