Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While government members seem pleased to quote low unemployment rates in their electorates, in my electorate of Fowler the picture is not quite as rosy. Unemployment in Fowler has risen from five per cent a year ago to closer to 10 per cent. This has occurred at a time when the participation rate has dropped from 63 per cent to 57 per cent, which is eight per cent below the national average. You could say that this six per cent drop is in fact hidden unemployment and that the real level of unemployment in Fowler is actually over 15 per cent.

Fowler has been heavily reliant on the manufacturing industry for employment opportunities. At the 2001 census, over 20 per cent of the workforce in Fowler was employed in manufacturing. That was the highest rate in Australia. But employment in that sector is now in decline. Across Australia, 60,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared since the last election. Many of those jobs required a low- or semi-skilled workforce, and those workers who have lost jobs in manufacturing do not easily fit into the skilled vacancies available. The failure of this government to boost training in our workforce is now bearing the bitter fruit of a workforce without skills or without the skills required by employers. Brian Redican, an economist at Macquarie Bank, asks if the Fairfield-Liverpool area could be the canary in the coalmine. Other regions of Australia which rely on manufacturing may follow Fowler.

What we are seeing as a result of the trend to higher unemployment is greater financial stress on families. Last month’s rise in interest rates will be the last straw for many families. Most real estate agents’ windows now feature properties with the words ‘Forced sale’ shown on them. House prices have fallen in the Liverpool-Fairfield area over the past year, and the building industry is slowing. This decline in consumer sentiment is also beginning to affect retail sales in some areas.

In response to these trends, I joined with the member for Prospect in hosting an employment forum at Fairfield City Council last month. The forum identified the need for a regional approach to employment issues. While Western and south-western Sydney have well-established regional organisations, there is clearly a need for a focus on regional development. As we are seeing now with drought relief, rural regions are able to present their case for assistance and federal funding. The same applies with other assistance measures for other regions. All too often, Western Sydney gets lumped in with the whole of Sydney and is not regarded as having a separate identity and challenges. To succeed in a global economy, Western Sydney needs to act locally.