Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. How is the government supporting the Australian economy and employment?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Once again we can tell from the opposition reaction that they are not interested in the full context of supporting Australian jobs, but, let me tell you, Australians very much are. We know the impact of the global recession is still being felt around the globe. Unemployment in the US stands at 9.8 per cent, in the European Union area at 9.6 per cent, in the UK at 7.9 per cent and in Canada at 8.4 per cent. Australia’s unemployment rate dropped slightly, to 5.7 per cent, in September and more than 40,000 full-time jobs were created in that month. But we need to remind ourselves, and I take this opportunity to remind the House, that thousands of Australians are doing it tough. Unemployment is 1.4 per cent higher today compared with in July last year. More than 658,000 Australians are experiencing the bitter times that unemployment brings. Others, of course, are living on short hours in cooperation with their employers to maintain employment.

It is easy to rattle off statistics, but what we have to do is look at the individuals involved. Last week I received the Keep Australia working report from my parliamentary colleagues Senator Mark Arbib and parliamentary secretary Jason Clare. Their report clearly shows that the global recession is being felt particularly in parts of this country. To take one example, Cairns in Far North Queensland has had a sharp spike in its regional unemployment rate to 13.8 per cent. To keep Australians in Cairns in the electorate of Leichhardt working, we are investing $138 million in building school infrastructure, another $3.9 million in social and defence housing and $4.3 million in community based infrastructure. That is helping companies like Cairns based Metrobuild, which is currently involved in delivering $60 million in school infrastructure projects as part of our education stimulus in North Queensland. Metrobuild project administrator John Lee, the voice of a real Australian talking about this, has said:

Metrobuild feels very positive about the impact of the stimulus package.

He said 50 workers are directly involved in building the $3.2 million Edge Hill State School’s multipurpose hall. In addition, Metrobuild is also supporting another 19 subcontractors employing staff in a $200,000 refurbishment of the Kuranda State School.

It is not just the economy of places like Cairns that has been affected. We know in rural Victoria, in Shepparton, that youth unemployment is currently at 31.9 per cent. Once again, this would have been made worse without the investments of our stimulus package. The Shepparton News reports that more than $10 million of projects started at schools in Greater Shepparton and $32.4 million of new housing approvals have started over the past three months. Greater Shepparton City Council business manager Leanne Mulcahy said the construction boom in Shepparton was ‘amazing’ and she said:

We would attribute a lot of that to the stimulus package and the first home buyers grant.

She went on to say that they had done computer modelling on the new construction and that a direct increase of $19 million in construction creates another 50 jobs.

During the days of the global recession we believe that the predominant task of this government is to keep Australians working. I understand the opposition do not share that sentiment; consequently they guffaw at these good news stories of people being kept in work. But we believe it is vital that during these days we continue to provide economic stimulus and keep Australians working.