Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak about the Centrelink jobs expo in Ipswich. The Rudd government is keeping Australia working and we are keeping Ipswich working as well. Centrelink is holding a series of job expos across Australia as part of the government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan. The main objective of these expos is to provide information about jobs and job pathway opportunities and to provide real jobs in areas hardest hit by the global recession. More than 300 previously unemployed people will have a job in Ipswich thanks to the Keep Australia Working jobs expo held at the showground on Warwick Road, Ipswich, on 21 May this year. The Parliamentary Secretary for Employment, the Hon. Jason Clare, was present together with the member for Oxley, Bernie Ripoll, and me. We congratulated all the jobseekers who found employment at the jobs expo. Unemployment in the western corridor, from South-West Brisbane through to Ipswich and the rural areas beyond, is approximately 7.2 per cent—above the national average of about 5.4 per cent. That is why the jobs expo was so important. Also, youth unemployment is 1.5 per cent higher than the national average. About 80 businesses and organisations set up stalls and there were about 500 jobs on offer.

I congratulate the Queensland Times newspaper and River 949 radio station for their extensive publicity and their support of the Keep Australia Working jobs expo in Ipswich. I also thank Samantha Wilson, the local employment coordinator. There were great employers present, such as Queensland Rail, Woolworths, Busy Beat, Ipswich City Council and others. I particularly want to thank the wonderful ambassadors, Tommy Raudonikis, Centrelink Jobs Expo Ambassador, and Artie Beetson, Centrelink Indigenous Ambassador, who kept the whole audience transfixed with stories about their own personal experiences and life testimonies. I am not just talking about the forthcoming State of Origin, which I am sure Queensland will win once again. I also thank Catherine O’Sullivan, State Manager, DEEWR; and Carolyn Hogg, Chief Executive Officer, Centrelink; Marianne Evans, Centrelink Area Manager, South and West Queensland; and Lisa Burke, Centrelink Jobs Expo Coordinator. This was a wonderful initiative supported by the local community. It builds on another initiative which was also announced in Ipswich: Local Connections to Work.

Local Connections to Work is a wraparound service assisting disadvantaged people. Senator Ursula Stephens, the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and Parliamentary Secretary for the Voluntary Sector, announced this in Ipswich as one of four places where this is going to be trialled. A range of different service providers provide service from the Centrelink office in Ipswich. Having a job is more than just having an income: it is about the future; it provides opportunities to participate, connect, look after yourself and achieve everything you want in life.

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements, sadly, has concluded.