Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was a nice speech by the shadow minister, the member for Kingsford Smith, but it was very inaccurate. If he actually looked at the statistics for the last 12 months, he would see that all the job creation has been created in businesses with a turnover of less than $50 million. Is that any coincidence, given that the company tax rate has been reduced for businesses with a turnover of under $50 million? I think not.

But I rise to speak on the motion on job creation moved by the member for Forrest. It's a good motion. It talks about the million jobs that have been created in Australia over the last five years, with 400,000 or more in the last 12 months. That was an election commitment the coalition government took to the election in 2013. It's now been achieved and it should be celebrated. It's a good thing.

But I will say it wasn't by accident that that happened. There was a clear plan to create more jobs. That was reinforced at the 2016 election—job creation and economic growth is what we campaigned on. The plan involved company tax reductions in order to bring us into line with other countries around the world and here in Asia, where it's much lower. It involved the defence manufacturing plan to create more jobs in manufacturing in our defence industry. It involved free trade agreements for our farmers and other people to make sure they have the opportunity to turbocharge exports and send more goods and services overseas. It also involved innovation. We've seen companies like the Evolve Group, which started in my electorate of Petrie, reshoring manufacturing jobs from China back to Australia. The Evolve Group have just won a contract to make plastic bottle tops for water bottles that they sell in Woolworths. That is $2 million a year—great news. So it wasn't an accident that a million jobs were created—and the member for Forrest is right that we need to talk about that.

I myself have been running jobseeker boot camps in my electorate. The last one was on 25 July. I had the Minister for Jobs and Innovation, Michaelia Cash, come up for that. It was good to have her there. I get local people looking for work and I connect them with employers that employ more than five people. It's really a simple question. I say to the employer: 'Mate, you employ more than five people. What is it that you look for when you're hiring? Tell the people here looking for work.' They hear it straight from the horse's mouth and it encourages a lot of people to get work. One of the speakers, Michael Kennedy, spoke about a number of things. The first thing he said is, 'If you're looking for work, be drug and alcohol free.' The second thing he said is to make sure that you're on time, that you're ready, that you're committed and that you're not taking sick days when they're not needed. He said you need to be really ready and engaged. The third thing he spoke about was caring about the work you're performing. He gave some really good tips to those jobseekers.

In fact, one of the guys that Michael hired, going back some time ago, got his job after I met him through the Work for the Dole scheme. I went down to the local Police Citizens Youth Club, met all the Work for the Dole participants and asked: 'How are you, ladies and gentlemen? What is it that you want to do? What sort of work are you looking for?' This young man said, 'I'd love to work with timber.' I knew Michael Kennedy, from Kennedy's Timber, so I said: 'Let me give this guy a ring for you and see what he's got.' Do you know what? He got a job. What was more impressive is that he worked for him on a casual basis for about nine months and then it slowed down and he got laid off, but that young man then kept ringing Michael, asking, 'Have you got any work?' He was then put back on and he has had a full-time job now for three years. So that's really good news. That was a great experience in my own electorate where Work for the Dole has been working well.

I say to those opposite that we need bipartisan support in relation to work. When you look at our plan, you can see we have a clear plan for jobs—what I just spoke about. The member for Moreton spoke about his plan for jobs. That plan revolved around what the unions want in this country. It was nothing to do with what's best for those unemployed but, rather, what's best for the unions. He spoke about restoring penalty rates. Penalty rates are set by the Fair Work Commission, which Bill Shorten created after Work Choices. He spoke about redefining 'casual' in the workplace. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time now, but I'll come back to this because there are important points that need to be made here. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

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