Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join my colleagues today to talk about the jobs crisis in this country. There are 800,000 unemployed Australians, as we stand here today. This is the highest number of unemployed Australians for 20 years. I have in my western suburban heart burned in my memory the Treasurer standing just there, in this parliament, daring Holden to leave this country and, with unemployment in the west of Melbourne, leading our electorates down the garden path.

Unemployment in Lalor sits at 7.2 per cent—much higher than the Melbourne average of 6.5 per cent. This is an increase of 1.2 per cent in the last year under this government. Many of these unemployed, 5,800 more were unemployed in the last 12 months, are young people. I was on the phone yesterday to someone who has worked in the west of Melbourne and run a company in the west of Melbourne for 30 years. His words to me were: 'The western suburbs are a ghost town now in terms of industry. The jobs aren't there.' This government needs to get on its bike and get to work.