Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to discuss an issue of great concern in my electorate of Barker. I appreciate that the 151 electorates around this country, I think it's fair to say, are all unique. The issue is the current inability of employers in my electorate to fill full-time positions. I was challenged with that recently, because, of course, the rhetoric you hear in a lot of places is that there are significant levels of unemployed Australians—and I'm sure that is right. But I'm here to tell the House that the circumstance in my electorate is very, very different. Now, I don't know whether that's a product of how open South Australia is or a product of the fact that my electorate is one of Australia's premium food manufacturing electorates, but the reality is: in my electorate, I'm contacted almost daily by employers who are flat-out desperate for people to fill full-time roles—in fact, so much so that these people are actually advertising on the radio. Take it from me: there are ads running on the radio encouraging people to apply for these jobs.

For those opposite, who want to say, 'Well, why don't they think about increasing pay?': these are not low-skill, no-skill jobs. Not only are very many of these jobs highly skilled and highly paid; they're also jobs that involve a career pathway. I have spoken to apprentices who are now full-time plant managers. This is about a progression. I was worried about this, so I took half a morning to make phone calls to my electorate—to major employers, albeit not every employer. Over the course of three hours I identified—wait for it—1,000 unfilled jobs in my electorate. Now, before everyone says, 'Look, they're fruit-picking jobs; they're not the kinds of jobs that people will travel for', can I tell you: half of those jobs, over 500, are full-time jobs available right now in my electorate. So the message I'd like to get out is this: if you find yourself unemployed right now and you're keen to take up full-time employment and you're happy to move to a regional area like the south-east of South Australia, contact my office and I'll put you in touch with the employment facilitator we've engaged in the electorate of Barker, or the RDAs. The reality is these jobs are available, and I'm not suggesting it's the case everywhere in Australia, but I'm telling you there are a thousand jobs available today in my electorate that we must fill.