Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services and the Minister Assisting the Minister for Workplace Relations. I refer to the minister’s comments, reported in the media today, where he was critical of young Australians being unemployed while Australia has a skills shortage. How are unemployed young Australians meant to access jobs when his government allows these jobs to be advertised only overseas under the 457 temporary work visa and not in Australia at all?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Leader of the Opposition I say this: the government and, I think, most Australians have the view that if you have the capacity to work you should work, and it is a fundamental principle that each and every minute of the day Australian taxpayers spend $11,280 in payments for the dole. Every minute of every hour of every day $11,280 goes out the taxpayers’ door to people on the dole. When you go to country towns and speak to the workers and to businesses—to places such as Lismore, where the member for Page has made a good point about the fact that it has an unemployment rate of over eight per cent—you are told there are businesses that are crying out for skilled and unskilled workers. There is not a skills shortage in Australia; there is a labour shortage in Australia.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Swan interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lilley is warned!

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is about the fact that there are more than half a million Australians on the dole and they are not applying for jobs in the way that they should be and have been in the past from time to time. We are in a glorious age where there are more jobs than workers. It is a great return to the golden era of the fifties and sixties when we had a low level of unemployment and high wages.

I make this final point: the Australian government would always rather see an Australian in an Australian job than a foreigner in an Australian job. That is a fundamental point. But it is also the case that if employers cannot find someone to do a hard day’s work then they have to go somewhere to get the workers. It is about the economic prosperity of the country and the economic prosperity of regional Australia.