Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Australia is facing a cost-of-living and jobs and skills emergency. My electorate of Fowler also bears the brunt as the nation's migrant settlement city. It has had one of the highest national unemployment rates over the past decade—almost 10 per cent, which is more than double the national average. How will the Prime Minister commit to working with me to lower the unemployment rate and lower the cost of living for struggling families of Fowler?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank very much the member for Fowler for her question. Just last week, we had a very constructive one-on-one meeting about how the government can assist people in the Fowler electorate, around the Liverpool area in south-west Sydney, an area that I'm very familiar with. The member is quite right to point to the socioeconomic disadvantage that's there in Fowler. It has a much higher proportion of new migrants to Australia than is the average across the country. In particular, many newer groups have gone to south-west Sydney to settle and to make Australia their home.

Over a period of time, what I know is that communities like the Vietnamese community in Fowler—just like the one in Marrickville in my electorate, where I recall the member for Fowler living some years ago when we first met—have proven to be a great success. But newer communities, such as the Assyrian community—people who've fled war-torn Syria in recent times—of course require additional support, and my government is very conscious of that.

That's one of the reasons why I've encouraged the member to engage in the Jobs and Skills Summit process, to have a local forum, and I've offered the government's support to provide advice and speakers—to provide the full force of government to have local forums. That is on offer to anyone around this chamber as well. What we need to do is to work with the local business community, TAFE and the three levels of government. Today at the national cabinet I discussed with Premier Perrottet, along with other premiers, how we can make sure that, arising out of that, we give Australians more opportunities for jobs through better TAFE funding, better training and making sure that we identify those opportunities which are there.

One of the things we know is that long-term unemployment can be a scourge. In particular, I'm aware that in south-west Sydney there are large pockets of housing estates where disadvantage is entrenched. When I was asked a question the other day about social housing, I spoke about the need to have a mix of housing as well. I have raised with state premiers, as well as with local government, how we get better investment, as part of this government's commitment to our Housing Australia Future Fund and other investment vehicles, to get increased support for a mix of housing so that you don't have people growing up in communities where they can't see people that they can aspire to be one day.

I thank the member for Fowler very much for her question. I look forward to working constructively with her, and I thank her for her engagement with the government up to this point. (Time expired)