Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week it was an absolute pleasure to have the Prime Minister and the Minister for Employment visit the electorate of Deakin to launch the new Sarina Russo Job Access centre in Ringwood. The centre will work with local employers to more effectively match them with job seekers. Importantly, the partnership will help facilitate new local employment opportunities arising from the Eastland redevelopment, which involves international retailers like UNIQLO—who were there that day and who have recently employed over 100 people to work in their new Ringwood store.

At the launch, job seekers highlighted to me the precious nature of every single job and the positive impact a job can have on people's lives. I was also pleased to be able to note that the unemployment rate in Deakin has dropped, an encouraging result, much of which comes from the positive small business package in our budget, given that small businesses form such an important part of my local economy. There is always more to be done in this area and I am focused every single day on ways we can encourage even more local job opportunities. That is one of the reasons I have fought very hard against the decision by Bill Shorten, Dan Andrews and Labor to cancel the desperately needed East West Link project, a decision which saw 6,700 Victorian jobs cancelled—flushed down the drain. We will fight for the East West Link. We need the road and we need the jobs. (Time expired)