Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1) recognises that alongside national defence, there is no higher obligation on a Commonwealth government than to support and promote the employment prospects of its citizens;

(2) condemns the record of the Government which has seen:

(a) an unemployment rate at a 12 year high;

(b) more than 81,000 Australians added to the unemployment queue since the election of the Government;

(c) a record underemployment rate of 8.6 per cent;

(d) a youth unemployment rate of over 15 per cent;

(e) 190,000 people long term unemployed, more than any time since records began; and

(f) one in four unemployed people being long term unemployed;

(3) recognises that while support for small businesses is important to stimulating jobs growth, more is needed; and

(4) calls on the Government to invest more in education, training, industry and innovation policies to rectify this jobs crisis.

Besides national defence, there can be no higher duty of a federal government than ensuring the economic prosperity of this country and ensuring that every Australian who wants a job can find a job. Sadly, on this particular issue, this august duty, this government is failing this nation. This government is failing the nation on unemployment and it is failing the people of this country most grievously. If you look at the latest employment statistics, until very recently unemployment was at a 12-year high. Those opposite will probably refer to the latest monthly figures which, quite frankly, are somewhat suspicious, given the fact that most of the employment growth supposedly came from Western Australia, a state close to being in recession due to the collapse in the mining industry.

Mr Deputy Speaker, if you look at the other employment figures that are relevant to this debate, we have an underemployment figure of 8.6 per cent, the highest rate in this country since records began to be collected on underemployment. It is higher than during the 1980s recession and the 1990s recession. That is very concerning. We have a youth unemployment rate of over 15 per cent nationally. We have a youth unemployment rate in my home region of the Hunter of over 20 per cent. Just think about that for a second. One in five young people in the Hunter Valley who want to find work cannot find work. That is a grievous situation. We have 190,000 long-term unemployed. That is the highest number of unemployed people ever recorded in this country. What is even more concerning is that one in four unemployed people in this country are long-term unemployed; they have been unemployed for over 52 weeks.

This all paints a picture of an economy that is strong in parts but sluggish in others, an economy which is not providing the jobs growth so necessary to give Australians an opportunity to find stable, rewarding and fulfilling employment. That is a great tragedy. Ultimately it reflects poorly on this government, a government that came to power making commitments around supposedly creating one million jobs in this country over five years. The figure is nowhere near that. In fact, extrapolating from job creation figures over the last two years, the figure will fall 150,000 jobs short of that target.

Those opposite might point to monthly figures on jobs creation, but the real thing to consider here is where do we compare internationally? We have a higher unemployment rate than the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. That was not the case under the last Labor government—a Labor government that helped create 900,000 jobs during the global financial crisis and a Labor government that produced an unemployment rate that was the envy of the rest of the world. That is our proud record on jobs. It is a proud record that stands in contrast to the record of those opposite.

In the last budget we saw a small business package announced. We on this side welcome that. We welcome it in part because it was based on some initiatives that Labor had in place that those opposite decided to abolish. They have brought them back and they have expanded one. That is great and we support that, but it cannot just be that small business package that is the driver of jobs growth in this country. We need to do more on innovation and industry policy. That is something those opposite do not believe in, given the fact that they have cut $2 billion from innovation policy in this country. We need a renewed commitment on education and training and skills formation. That is something this government is so grievously lacking in, given the fact that they have cut $1 billion from training in their last two budgets.

We have a jobs crisis in this country. We have unemployment at around a 12-year high. We have the highest underemployment rate since records began. We have the highest number of long-term unemployed since records began. We have youth unemployment over 15 per cent. We have one in four unemployed people who have been looking for a job for more than a year. Urgent action is required. Those on the Labor side take job creation very seriously. It is our raison d'etre to provide the dignity of employment to as many Australians as possible. For those on the other side it is all about rhetoric. It is all about symbolism. It is all about demonising job seekers rather than helping job seekers. I am proud to move this motion. I am proud to stand up for jobs, alongside every other Labor member in this place.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Charlton for bringing forward the motion. Unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, and underemployment are massive issues for this country. But I would like to pick him up on one thing. The first duty of any government is to secure its borders and protect its citizens but, as a Labor member of parliament, I expect that he would gloss over those things.

There are a lot of issues around unemployment and underemployment, and the issues in my electorate are wide-ranging. There are three major concerns in my regional electorate: youth unemployment, which is over 20 per cent and that does not include those who have opted out of the system; senior unemployment; and unemployment for non-English speaking migrants. We have to understand that governments do not create jobs; governments create the circumstances for business to employ people. We have to set the circumstances. If the set of circumstances are too lax then abuse occurs. If it is too stringent, opportunity is restricted. I see a bunch of school kids up behind the glass in the gallery. I say to them, what we are trying to do, and the issue the member for Charlton raises, is that when you leave school, whether you go to university or just get a job, you are able to go out and get a start. When I speak to kids at Queensland Youth Services or at Green Army jobs, what they are really chasing is a start, an opportunity. They do not really care what they do, so long as they can get that start. What they want is that opportunity.

A letter to the editor of the Townsville Bulletin a little while ago talked about the Snowy Mountains scheme and how visionary that project was. People from all around the world worked on that massive scheme and barely a word of English was spoken, yet they did such a fantastic job for Australia. Unfortunately, none of those people could get a job today because they would not pass basic literacy and would not get past the workplace health and safety issues. These days, people under 24 must have 100 hours as a learner just to get a drivers licence, including 10 at night. Whilst we do not want unsafe workplaces and unsafe roads, we are putting up barriers to employment and to opportunity that are working against the very people whom we should be trying to provide with opportunity.

The member for Charlton and I both come from regional electorates where public transport is not that easy. We are very much a car society. In Townsville, if you live in the upper Ross and if you have to be in the city for a nine o'clock job interview and you miss the 6.30 bus, or it does not turn up, which is often the case, you cannot get to the Willows in time to get the connecting bus into the city. If you are from a low-SES background and your parents do not own a car, that is how governments preclude people and make it harder for them to get an opportunity.

We do not want lax workplaces and we do not want to roll down things, but we do have to look at the exclusions that we put on people who are trying to get a job. We must look at these things here. Governments have a serious role to play in providing opportunity. Queensland just recently elected a state Labor government. That is all well and good. Labor went to the election saying that they would provide the jobs and the opportunities without selling assets. As soon as they got in, they still want the money from the federal government's asset recycling fund, which is a bit silly. The figure I have heard bandied about the place in relation to the amount of private investment pulled out of Queensland due to the change of government is $37 billion of private investment. That is a massive amount of money. That is a massive amount of private investment. We will wait with bated breath to see what Curtis Pitt is going to do with the state budget. He must map out a plan for the provision of jobs and a map for the provision of opportunity for Queenslanders because we are ones who are really up against it at the moment.

Queensland made the decision, and that is very well and good, and that is fair and I accept the decision, but you cannot sit there and say we do not have opportunity because we do have opportunity. If you are asset rich and cash poor then you have to look at the rationalisation of assets. Opportunity is what we are seeking for all people. 'To get a start' is the phrase I hear all the time in my community. 'I just need a start.' We have to make sure that employment laws and workplace health and safety things are right and that opportunity is there so we can guide people and help them get that start. It is so much easier to get an opportunity if you are in the workplace. It is so much easier to get a job if you are actually in work. That is what we have to work towards.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I pay tribute to my friend the member for Charlton for moving this motion about jobs today, and I am pleased to be seconding it. Having said that, it gives me no pleasure to point out that our communities have a fair bit in common when it comes to challenges in the labour market: unemployment in Logan, in my area, is 9.4 per cent; it is 8.1 per cent in the member for Charlton's area and in both cases, unfortunately, it is well above average. And youth unemployment is much worse, as we know: it is 17.8 per cent in my community of Logan and something like 13.2 per cent in the member for Charlton's community, and the national average is bad as well at 13.4 per cent. These are very troubling statistics at the local level, and unfortunately the national numbers are worrying as well.

Despite a marginal improvement for May, we still have unemployment in this country with a six in front of it. It is has had a six in front of it since July 2014, and that is too high. We have not seen unemployment that high since the now Prime Minister was the employment minister in the early 2000s. On top of that, we now have a budget that has downgraded the forecast for unemployment and so we will have higher unemployment for longer, despite the government's promises that they would create all of these new jobs. In fact, on the contrary: we have had 56,500 more unemployed people since the government came to office. What makes this government's poor performance on unemployment so stunning is that unemployment is higher today than on any single day of the global financial crisis. We saw the sharpest synchronised downturn in the global economy and yet the unemployment rate then was still lower every day under Labor than it is today under the Abbott government.

The member for Charlton and I both played our role in the Labor government during the global financial crisis, where Labor managed to keep Australia out of recession and keep unemployment below six per cent. A million jobs were created during that time in office, despite the worst global conditions since the Great Depression, and now we are seeing a lot of Labor's good work being worn away by this government, which has a political strategy but not a strategy for jobs.

People in my community worry that unemployment will affect them or their family members, and they know the devastating effect that unemployment has on individuals and families. There is also another good reason to be concerned—that is, the effect that unemployment has on our growth prospects as a country today and into the future. Economists talk about three types of unemployment: frictional unemployment, which is the least worrying kind of brief periods where people are out of work as they are changing jobs; cyclical unemployment, which is the job losses that occur during recessions and economic stress; and structural unemployment, which occurs when people are out of work because of deeper, underlying problems in the national economy caused by things like mismatched skills, skills shortages, technological change and intergeneration disadvantage. What economists are really concerned about is that the higher unemployment we are witnessing in Australia could become this type of structural unemployment. This is a process that has a fancy economic term—hysteresis—which can have scarring impacts on the national economy, because when people are out of work for a period of time they lose employable skills and the labour market becomes harder to crack, resulting in an increase in structural unemployment. That is why the increase in the long-term unemployed is a real source of concern. It is not only hurting families, as I said, but it is also hurting the long-term growth prospects of our national economy, and that is what is so troubling about the numbers that we do see for long-term unemployed and the prospects of our young people not entering the workforce when they would like to. All of these issues combined are very troubling indeed.

The way we respond to these challenges is one of the starkest differences between this side of the House and that side of the House today. On this side, we want to invest in education, in training, in industry, in innovation and in employment, while those opposite are more interested in trashing these investments for short-term political gain. We need more investment in education and training in this country to develop the skilled workforce we need for the future economy. We do not need things like the coalition's $30 billion cuts to schools or their $100,000 degrees; we need more encouragement for small business and greater support for innovation. And we need a proper jobs plan to identify where the jobs of the future will come from, rather than the backwards-looking short-termism of those opposite. On this side of the House we defended Australian jobs during the global financial crisis, and we are more than happy to fill the vacuum left by the government when it comes to a proper long-term vision to invest in our workforce.

Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin stands up and talks about unemployment being too high. When the member for Rankin worked for a previous Labor Treasurer in late 2013—

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unemployment was a lot lower than it is now!

Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin would be interested in listening to this. The then Treasurer, Chris Bowen, said:

The unemployment rate is expected to increase from 5.6 per cent in the June quarter 2013 to 6¼ per cent in the June quarter 2014, and stabilise at that rate through to the June quarter 2015.

I repeat:

stabilise at that rate through to the June quarter 2015.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It never hit six!

Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was your prediction, member for Rankin. You have a short memory. On your way; off you go. He has no idea what was said previously and he is not willing to recognise what he came up with when he was a senior adviser to the previous government. How poor they are in sticking to the facts.

Let us look at the facts. The member talked about our jobs plan. Mr Deputy Speaker, I will tell you where there is a jobs plan. Members opposite forget that only a month or two ago in the budget we invested $5.5 billion in the new Growing Jobs and Small Business package, including $3.25 billion in tax cuts for small business and $1.75 billion in accelerated depreciation measures. I have had great feedback, as most of my colleagues on this side have, about how good this is for small business. They are going out there and are investing in their businesses. They are redeveloping. They are looking at employing more people. They are looking at expanding and growing further. They have been buoyed by this incentive that the federal government announced in the May budget.

In terms of new employment services, there is close to $7 billion for the Jobactive program. We have heard constantly about infrastructure projects right around Australia. We are investing billions in major infrastructure projects. In South Australia there is the north-south corridor—two major projects worth $1 billion. There are the free trade agreements. Every few days we hear that Australian businesses are looking to take advantage of the free trade agreements after the federal government successfully negotiated new agreements with China, Korea and Japan, which will boost jobs, enhance investment and help our economy.

I will give you one example from a recent visit to China by Randall Tomich of Tomich Wines. They have secured a distribution agreement with China's biggest hypermarket chain, RT-Mart, which is set to deliver more than $500 million in annual sales to Australian food and beverage brands. The deal will see the establishment of a designated aisle selling famous Australian brands, whether it be dairy products, vitamins, wine or other food. This company has outpaced Wal-Mart and a European company, Carrefour, in sales over the last two years. The deal, believed to be the largest of its kind by an Australian food company, will benefit from a reduction in tariffs under the free trade agreement. Mr Tomich has said his company's research suggested each store would generate annual sales for the Australian brands of between $4 million and $5 million. If this is achieved, yearly sales of between $500 million and $630 million are possible. Naturally it has taken a lot of hard work and five years to get to this position, but this is what Australian entrepreneurs and businesses are all about—taking advantage of the opportunities currently out there.

Let us compare those opposite. As former Treasurer Peter Costello said, in 2009 the Labor government increased spending by nearly 13 per cent, an increase which had no precedent in modern economic management, except at the height of the Whitlam mania. This is what they do: they spend money and waste money. There are new programs that are wasteful and inefficient. We have created jobs. The recent May figures showed employment rose by 42,000. Since the government was elected more than 280,000 new jobs have been created—280,000 new jobs. We are on the way to rebuilding this economy. Today Gaganis Brothers, just outside my electorate—a great family business—announced an extra 50 jobs. Recently we had success stories like Robin Johnson Engineering, who do great things with their energy systems in the transport, energy and resources sector. Philmac, a world leader in pipe systems in the agribusiness sector, was a recipient of $2.4 million under the federal government's Manufacturing Transition program. This will allow new jobs, new investment and new expansion. Compare this with Labor in South Australia that promised jobs but created very few. The state Labor government promised 100,000 new jobs in six years and have only delivered 10,000—well short. They need to reduce taxes, reduce the emergency services levy, reduce payroll tax and ensure a more competitive environment for South Australia so that businesses can take advantage of what the federal government is offering them through free trade agreements and budget incentives. This will ensure a more prosperous economy.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise in support of this important motion moved by my friend the member for Charlton, which sets out a very sorry record from this government on jobs and calls for urgent action. I emphasise the statement for the benefit of the member for Herbert:

… there is no higher obligation on a Commonwealth government than to support and promote the employment prospects of its citizens …

This is an obligation that this government is failing lamentably.

The electorate of Scullin, like that of Charlton and like that of Rankin, faces significant challenges in respect of unemployment, in part owing to complex issues, including intergenerational disadvantage. Breaking these cycles is difficult, but it is made even harder when there is a government seemingly obsessed with making people's lives worse.

The most recent budget implicitly recognised some of the damage which has been done, with the reinstatement, albeit rebadged, of Labor's policies such as Youth Connections and partnership brokers—of course, without explanation and without apology as to why these and other programs were abolished in the first place. We can only assume they were cut in a flurry of ideologically inspired incompetence by this government. The original reason was, of course, the so-called budget emergency, which has miraculously disappeared, just 12 months later. I am certainly relieved for the young people and the providers in Melbourne's north but question why they had to be put through this ordeal in the first place.

Members opposite have been hubristically talking up the government's apparent record in job creation, but let us not forget Tony Abbott's commitment to create one million new jobs in five years, a commitment not spoken of by members opposite. It is little wonder. When we were in government, Labor had to contend with the global financial crisis—a real emergency, not an ideologically inspired one. Yet, despite the global financial crisis, unemployment was not as high as it is today and has been throughout the Abbott government's watch. The most recent unemployment figures showed a modest reduction in the unemployment rate, and we say thank goodness for that. However, the unemployment queue has actually grown by 56,000 people since this government was elected, with last month making one year of unemployment being over six per cent.

The member for Charlton has already effectively set out the grim unemployment statistics and touched on the record underemployment—a matter that members opposite, I suspect, will not be addressing. But I want to make mention of some statistics that impact Melbourne's north-east region, which covers the electorate of Scullin, where the unemployment rate was half a percentage point higher than the national average. Most worrying here is youth unemployment. In April, the national figure was just over 13 per cent; in the north-east region, over 20 per cent. In April last year, it was only 16 per cent. To give these figures some context: usually the rate is only so high during the school holidays, when more young people are looking for work. Clearly there is a significant structural problem, exacerbated by the austerity policies of this government.

At community meetings I have been holding throughout the electorate, the issue of jobs and particularly jobs for young people keeps being raised. There is a genuine and well-founded fear that there simply are not enough entry-level jobs for young people. It is vital to remember that these are people's lives that we are talking about. We are talking about talent that is wasted, ambition unfulfilled and opportunities lost. It is a human cost as well as statistics and the economic cost.

All Australians deserve the dignity of work, including opportunities to be made job ready. This is why education is so important and why the Abbott government's cuts to school and university funding are so reckless and so short sighted. These cuts will entrench disadvantage. Education is the great enabler. Labor understand this, which is why we opened up the university sector without burdening students with $100,000 degrees. We supported the vocational education sector. Despite all this government's hubris about its small business package, there is no real plan for jobs.

Fortunately, in Victoria, we now have a state Labor government with such a plan. It is welcome relief from four years of torpor under Baillieu and Napthine and is a counterbalance to austerity at a federal level. Victorian Labor has identified six sectors with potential for economic growth, including medical technology and pharmaceuticals; new energy technology; food and fibre; transport, defence and construction technology; international education; and professional services.

At the federal level, this will be complemented. Labor would invest in jobs of the future, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to make sure that Australians are ready to take up jobs in the new economy—the good jobs that the Treasurer talks about but does nothing to create. Labor accepts and indeed embraces the duty and the obligation to support and promote the employment prospects of citizens. We understand the immense challenges facing working men and women of Australia as well as future generations of workers. Only Labor has a plan to rise to these challenges, and only Labor will deliver to ensure the employment prospects of current and future generations of working Australians.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to rise today and speak on this motion. In the motion before the House, the first point reads:

That the House:

… recognises that alongside national defence, there is no higher obligation on a Commonwealth government than to support and promote the employment prospects of its citizens …

I agree with that, and I am pleased to be able to speak on it and set the record straight for the members for Charlton and Scullin and others who seem to have forgotten that, under the previous Labor government, we saw $16 billion ripped out of the defence budget, including reducing defence spending as a percentage of GDP to the lowest level since 1938.

I agree that national security and the Australian Defence Force are key elements and that it is a key responsibility of the Australian government to ensure that these are well funded and that the nation that we all love and the democracy that we enjoy continue to thrive. Just last week, I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with the Navy over at HMAS Stirling and have a look at some of the superb work that the young men and women in the Australian Defence Force are doing.

Labor's record there is not great, and their employment record is not much better. I do agree with that first point in what they are saying. Of course, the federal government have a major responsibility in making sure that we create an environment for small business where businesses flourish and ensuring that employment opportunities are there, but of course state governments also have a large responsibility. We now see a state Labor government in Queensland with a fairly appalling record, I think, of sitting around for the last four months not doing a lot, just cancelling anything that the previous Liberal-National Party Newman government implemented. We obviously know that they came into power and were not expected to do so, but they do not have a plan. They do not have a plan for jobs. They do not have a plan for the state. They only have a plan for more debt and deficit, just like all Labor governments do.

We have already seen them cancel projects in the state like the port projects on the Gold Coast and also in Cairns, and of course this affects jobs. These cruise ship terminals would have made a big difference to Cairns and on the Gold Coast. We have also seen them cancel some of the Brisbane City Council housing development applications—thousands of jobs just with those three alone. This is what happens when you get a government that is just ideologically opposed to what the former government wanted to do. They have even cancelled things like the hospital guarantee waiting list. How appalling.

So what are we doing in this space? I was fortunate enough last week to have the Assistant Minister for Employment, the member for Cowper, up in my electorate, and we visited a number of projects. I want to thank him for coming up. We went out to Costco at North Lakes, where almost 40 job seekers have found work through MAX Employment, and we visited a Work for the Dole site at Deception Bay, at the local PCYC, where local job seekers are putting their skills into practice and developing new skills. I want to thank the Deception Bay PCYC for taking on this Work for the Dole project, and I want to thank the young men and women that are there involved in this project. When they go to their next job interview, they will be able to say: 'Well, I've actually been volunteering down at the local PCYC, and I've been helping build a new deck, and I've been working with timber, and I've been painting the wall, and I've been doing a bit of plastering, learning new skills. I've been proactively getting out there.' That looks great when you go for that interview. So that is an important practical step, and I want to say, 'Well done,' to those 16 or so participants that were involved out there.

The 2015 budget has a strong focus on helping more job seekers, especially young job seekers, find and keep a job. Our Growing Jobs and Small Business package will give small businesses more confidence to invest and grow their business and in turn employ more staff. The package will see a new $18 million National Work Experience Program. What a great idea—a work experience program that will provide job seekers with the opportunity to undertake work experience in businesses to improve their chances of finding a job. This is so important when I talk to job-seekers in my electorate, because there is that catch-22 experience: 'I need experience, on one hand, to get a job, but I also don't have any.' So the Work Experience Program will be fantastic. We are also investing $212 million in a Transition to Work service to help young job seekers most at risk of long-term unemployment find a job, and I look forward to all of us working together to help more Australians find work.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased that the member for Petrie is very congratulatory towards this government reintroducing programs for youth unemployed that it basically abandoned in its first year after election. Equally, I want to put on the public record the way in which I deplore the abolition of trade training centres, which were very crucial in electorates such as my own. Yes, the Abbott government has at this stage renamed and rebadged a few programs that it thought there was no need for in the last budget. That is a recognition of the realities we now face.

We had a contribution for the member for Herbert, who came in here and started to lecture us about security being more important than unemployment. That is an interesting contribution from a government that allowed 100-plus jihadists to leave the country and has been explaining their numbers to us ever since—whether there are 113 or 110. But I believe that a more timely contribution in regard to unemployment came from the chairman of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Bishop Christopher Saunders. He said of unemployment and this government:

Society fails its citizens where the economy does not generate sufficient employment and when government does not adequately intervene to promote job creation and maintain basic wages …

He further commented:

Just leaving it to the market will not ensure the benefits of prosperity flow to low-paid and unemployed workers.

In an article in Justice Trends, he went on to note:

Youth unemployment has risen dramatically following the global financial crisis: 290,000 Australians under the age of 25 are now unemployed. That's an unemployment rate of 14 per cent. The level is much higher for 15 to 19 year olds at 20 per cent—about 160,000 young Australians

Unfortunately, the approach in Australia—

he is talking about this government—

has been to argue for some of the most punitive measures for young unemployed people.

So they have accomplished very high unemployment, particularly amongst young people, but the whole strategy of the government has been to demonise these people and to basically say: 'Let's reduce their rates when they're unemployed. Let's make them go for six months without any payments whatsoever.'

I agree with Bishop Saunders when he says of the Intergenerational report:

This is a worthy initiative, but it does raise a question about the lower priority given to the need to skill up and employ younger workers.

When we talk about what the government is doing, we had another very timely contribution from ACOSS, the Australian Council of Social Service. I cited this in a recent speech here, but I want to go on to quote what they say about the suffering of people on Newstart and youth allowance in regard to the payments that already operate without the attempt by the government to further marginalise, stigmatise and persecute young unemployed people, under an unemployment level that they themselves have accomplished. An ACOSS survey of Newstart and youth allowance recipients in regard to housing—it also looked at many other measures of welfare—found that 27 per cent of them said, 'I spend more money than I receive,' in regard to their housing. Forty-eight per cent of them said, 'I break even most weeks,' and only 16 per cent of them said, 'I am able to save some money most weeks.'

We have a situation here where the current unemployment pattern in south-west Sydney is close to seven per cent. Most worryingly, in the Hunter and Newcastle region it is over 12 per cent. In January, the worst month of recent times, we saw 28,000 full-time jobs lost, whilst about 16,000 part-time jobs were created. The underemployment rate is therefore nearly unchanged from where it was at its record worst, having only dropped to 8.5 per cent. In sheer numbers, 750,000 Australians are in unemployment queues and almost two million are not working to the extent to which they wish they could.

We have a Treasurer of this country, at the usual distance he is from the Australian people, telling people: 'Don't worry about the housing price crisis in Sydney and nationally. Go out and get a good job.' This is a government which has said to unemployed people: 'We're going to basically strip you of your humanity. We're going to make sure your payments are in some ways not adequate, because you're a shirker, and we are appealing to those people who are financing welfare.'

Youth unemployment remains much too high, at 13.5 per cent. While it is down from its record high levels for this century, earlier in this very government's tenure, it is still at a level not seen since 2002. So I commend the member for Charlton for raising the question of unemployment in this country. The government have accomplished something which the current Prime Minister's hero, Prime Minister Howard, accomplished: record levels of unemployment. At the same time, they are reducing people's conditions while they are unemployed.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes you see in soccer an own goal, and that is what this motion is from the hapless member for Charlton—it is simply an own goal. We are quite happy to talk about unemployment—how we are improving it and compare it to the disastrous term of the previous Labor government. I can imagine the member for Charlton sitting down last Thursday preparing his speech on this motion. Unfortunately, the ABS numbers came out last Thursday and they showed that in May there were 42,000 new jobs created in the economy. I can imagine the member for Charlton kicking the cat at such bad news. There were 42,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate is down to six per cent. It is still too high but it is down to six per cent.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unemployment was less—it was less under us.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Grayndler interjecting. I remember that when he was sitting on this side of the chamber his last forecast was that at this time unemployment would be 6.25 per cent. The member for Grayndler should give us a round of applause because we have unemployment much lower than what was anticipated and forecast when he was running the show. Now that we are running the show we are a quarter of a per cent under. This government is out creating jobs.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are opposed to jobs.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler seeks to intervene. I remind him of his record when he was sitting on this side of the chamber. There were 200,000 jobs lost. When the member for Grayndler was running the show the unemployment queue was increased by 200,000. You could fill the MCG twice with the number of people who joined the unemployment queue under the member for Grayndler's policies.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's not true.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler says it is not true. I have a copy of the ABS figures here. I am happy to give them to the member for Grayndler so he can see the numbers. The ABS figures show that the unemployment queues of this country lengthened by 200,000 under the previous Labor Party. Let us compare that to the previous Howard and Costello coalition government. They inherited $96 billion worth of debt and deficit. They paid back that $96 billion of debt and $54 billion worth of interest along the way, they put $40 billion in the Future Fund and they had a surplus of $20 billion. On top of that they reduced the unemployment queues of this country by 300,000 people. The previous Labor government increased those same queues by another 200,000. Most affected were small businesses. The numbers do not lie—there were 519,000 jobs lost in small business under a Labor government.

It is interesting to dig down into the ABS numbers because of the stories they tell. They show the contrast between New South Wales, which has a coalition government that gets on with the job and allows the private sector to get on with it, and Victoria, which has a Labor government that ties things up in red tape, breaks contracts and lets the CFMEU and their union mates run over the place. Let us have a look at what the ABS numbers for the last two months show for New South Wales and Victoria. In the past two months New South Wales created 35,200 jobs. That was a pretty good effort from the coalition government in New South Wales. How about our friends down in Victoria, where the Labor government is in charge? How many jobs did they create? Not even one. There has been a decline of 1,400 jobs. So New South Wales has put on 35,200 jobs and Victoria, where we have a Labor government in control, has lost 1,400 jobs.

History repeats over and over again. Whenever you have a Labor government in control, which thinks it is big government and big unions that control jobs, we see jobs lost. Whenever we have a coalition government, which understands that government does not create jobs but it is small business and entrepreneurs that create jobs, we see job creation in this country happen, and that is what we are seeing now. This government is well on the way to creating one million new jobs. We are going to work hard. We are going to get the unemployment numbers down and continue to decrease the unemployment queues of this country.

Debate adjourned.