Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place today to stand up and fight for regional jobs. I cannot talk enough about regional jobs and how much those regional jobs mean to my community in Herbert. Jobs truly matter to regional Queenslanders, and jobs are critically important, as I have said, in my electorate of Herbert. Townsville's unemployment is currently just under 10 per cent, and our youth unemployment is just under 25 per cent. People in the Herbert community want not only the promise of a job but a secure and well-paid job.

Under the Turnbull government, job security in regional Queensland has become a thing of the past. Everyone that I have spoken with in Townsville simply wants to be able to take a breath, relax and feel secure that their job is safe. I have met people who have given 26 years of loyal experience to their employer, who work full-time and yet feel that their job security is under threat at this point in time. It is a sad day when a permanent, full-time employee does not feel that his or her job is safe under this Turnbull government.

It is not just the tradies, the sparkies or the miners who are feeling that their jobs are under threat; it is also people who work in what used to be known as cushy, safe, government jobs. This is because the Turnbull government have started to attack the public servants in their own departments. The government have started culling jobs in government departments left, right and centre. This carnage is happening in Townsville, where hundreds of public sector jobs have been cut. If the Turnbull government want to know how they can create jobs in the regions, they could start by replacing the jobs that they've cut.

The Turnbull government has cut 200 jobs from the Australian Taxation Office in Townsville alone. The Turnbull government has closed the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, forcing five of our local veterans out of a job and ending any sort of career transition pathway for our local veterans and ex-service personnel. The Turnbull government has cut more than 19 jobs from the CSIRO, with five more to go this year. The Turnbull government has relocated two Department of Veterans' Affairs positions to Brisbane. I ask you: when did Brisbane become regional?

On top of all of this, the Turnbull government has threatened to close the Bureau of Meteorology in Townsville. Has the Prime Minister already forgotten the devastation caused by Cyclone Debbie? Has the Prime Minister forgotten the destruction of Cyclone Yasi? How could the Prime Minister possibly even think it would be wise to close the Bureau of Meteorology office in tropical North Queensland? The great work of the Bureau of Meteorology's office in Townsville has saved many lives over the years and decades. It is because of their great, on-the-ground local knowledge and networks that they have been able to act quickly to provide local and relevant information to local councils, the state government, Defence and of course the broader community. Governments, businesses, community organisations and the broader community were able to prepare quickly, thanks to the great work on the ground of the staff at the Bureau of Meteorology, thus saving lives in our recent episode with Cyclone Debbie. Tropical cyclones are a regular threat to the people of North Queensland, and I say to the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull: closing this office shows how completely out of touch you really are with regional communities.

I am calling out the bare-faced myths of the Turnbull government and in particular the misinformation peddled by the candidate for New Zealand, the New Zealander of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. The Turnbull government's budget has highlighted the absolute hypocrisy of the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, and his regional jobs plan, because nowhere in this year's budget has funding been allocated for government departments and services to be decentralised. The Deputy Prime Minister has delivered a false message to regional areas regarding his so-called decentralisation plan. I have spoken to and with disappointed organisations in North Queensland who have now seen that the Deputy Prime Minister does not truly care about regional Queensland. No funding in the budget for jobs—this has been a kick in the guts, a stab in the back and salt rubbed into our wounds. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister can be assured that North Queenslanders will not forget this.

The issues paper released by the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation has so far identified a number of suggestions for regional development. I urge the Turnbull government to listen to some of these suggestions, because they are pertinent and meaningful for the regions. The issues paper outlines the Regional Australia Institute discussion paper, The future of regional Australia: change on our terms and states that governments 'continue to have a role in providing the right political and policy settings for fostering regional growth.' The federal government has a key role in assisting to shape and develop policy which will directly impact on the growth and successes of regional Australia. But the Turnbull government's policy of cutting jobs in regional Australia, with more than 200 jobs lost in Townsville alone, is definitely not a policy that Townsville wants and not the policy that Townsville needs.

If you want to understand regional Queensland then you have to go to regional Queensland. The Prime Minister will not get to understand regional Queensland by sitting in his Canberra office, making policies. He needs to visit the regions regularly and talk with the people so that he actually gets what it is like to live in regional, rural and remote Queensland. We don't want the Turnbull government's cockatoo service of fly in, drop mess all over us and fly out. Townsville wants real action and a genuine commitment to creating jobs. Townsville isn't asking for much, Prime Minister Turnbull—just a chance to have a good, secure job and enough money to pay for a roof over our heads, put food on the table, educate our children and have access to quality health care. Townsville is just demanding the bare necessities and we are not even getting that.

Townsville is also asking for a sound regional decentralisation policy that would assist our ex-service personnel and veterans as they transition from the Army. Townsville is the largest home to the defence forces in the country and therefore we have the largest population of veterans and ex-service personnel. They are screaming out for jobs as they transition into civilian life. I say to the Prime Minister: 'We are just demanding the bare necessities and we are not even getting that at the moment.' I urge the people of Townsville to lodge a submission to this very important inquiry because our future may well depend on it.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 12:22 to 16:00