Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not sure if government ministers and members have realised but there is an Australian jobs embassy that has been set up on the lawns out the front of Parliament House. These are workers who have lost their jobs on this government's watch. These are seafarers, manufacturers and shipbuilders, people who have been forgotten by this government because of their policies and their lack of care.

What is wrong with a government that they will not even go down to the lawns and meet with these workers and talk with these workers and hear their experiences? These are people who were working on our ships, who in the middle of the night either received a text message or an email to tell them they were sacked or forcibly removed because they dared to say that they wanted to have Australians working on Australian ships. This government has been silent when it comes to standing up for people working in the seafaring industry or in manufacturing.

I met with a man who was one of the workers who was forcibly removed, a man from Golden Square in my electorate, who has worked in the industry for 30 years, and he was shocked. He was shocked that he was replaced by a foreign worker, earning as little as $2 a day.

When will this government stand up and support Australian jobs? When will they go down and meet with the people at the Australian jobs embassy on our own lawns, just out the front of this place? It is time the government stood up for Australian jobs.