Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting for School Education, Brendan O'Connor. How has the government's record investment in education infrastructure helped to create Australian jobs? How will it continue to benefit Australians in the future?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for School Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his important question and his ongoing contribution to policy in the areas of employment and education. Indeed, this is a very pertinent question because it is really about what matters in this country. Education matters and employment matters. I am very happy to say that when the Prime Minister asked me to assist the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garrett, in a very important area of public policy I was very happy to engage with educators around this country because of the importance of the reforms we have put in place.

The government's investment in school infrastructure is the largest in our history. This government has doubled Commonwealth expenditure on school education in only four years. We have transformed many schools, creating 21st century infrastructure, including 3,100 interactive libraries, 4,500 classrooms and much more. It is an investment to enable our future workers and our future leaders to prepare for the challenges ahead for this nation. It is a recognition that we must ensure the best possible education in a very competitive region and, indeed, a very competitive world.

Beyond the educational benefits, the assistance to our economy, insofar as the BER and other initiatives go, cannot be overstated. It should not surprise anyone in this place, or indeed anyone in this country, that it took a Labor government responding to the global financial crisis to invest in education and create employment. This education initiative has supported around 120,000 jobs. Tradies like carpenters, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, plasterers, labourers—you name it—and other workers would be unemployed if it were not for the initiatives of this government. As a result of this action Australia's economy and employment figures are the envy of the world. You have only to look around: 8.4 per cent unemployment in the United States; 8.3 per cent unemployment in the United Kingdom; and elsewhere 10.4 per cent—double the 5.2 per cent figure in this country. That is a direct result of the effort of this government to put in place the stimulus package during the global financial crisis. In regard to the opposition we know that the Leader of the Opposition literally slept through the legislation to support thousands of Australian workers.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is ceasing to be relevant. He will return to the question.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for School Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the end he does not support jobs in this country and does not support employment.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her statement on ABC AM this morning that the financial services sector 'will employ more Australians'. I refer the Prime Minister to the almost 2,000 jobs lost at ANZ, Westpac, Macquarie, Suncorp and a number of other financial institutions. Prime Minister, do these job losses reflect an industry that will employ more Australians or are these job losses simply, in your words, 'growing pains'?

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

To the shadow Treasurer I say yet again: here we have the opposition using the loss of workers' jobs as a political play thing. The only job in this country they are interested in is the office of Prime Minister. That is all the Leader of the Opposition cares about. All that they care about on the front bench of the opposition is getting themselves a pay rise by moving over onto the government benches. They exhibit no concern for the jobs of working Australians. For them, working Australians are a convenient prop for a media interview; they are nothing else. Contempt for working Australians is bred deep into their bones, and it came out when they engaged in Work Choices.

I say to the shadow Treasurer—and it is what he of all people should understand—that we are seeing changes in our economy and we are seeing changes in our banks. Let me make it very clear how I feel about the changes that have been announced by the ANZ. I think the combination of putting up your interest rates, then announcing job losses and then seeking to blame both of those decisions on someone else is reprehensible. That is what I feel about it, and I am very happy to state that very clearly in here. So, in relation to these job losses, of course I am very worried about those Australians and the pressures on them.

I also say to the shadow Treasurer, 'Let's recognise the opportunities that come with change in our region.' Our region is growing in economic power. Its middle class is growing—and we see literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people in our region joining the middle classes—and as the middle classes grow they will demand services just as we demand services. Amongst the services they will demand will be cutting-edge financial services, and Australia can play a major role in providing them. That is an opportunity. That is why I am optimistic about the future of financial services. It requires us to understand our economy, our region, and to stop talking the simplistic protest nonsense that the opposition walks in here with every day.