Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

Senators on the other side may not want to hear this, but it is important because it is regarding local employment strategies. Maybe the Liberal Party do not care about jobs—they have no jobs plan—but I would hope that they would want to hear some of the good news that is going on in communities. Given that there was no time to lose, the government put in place seven priority areas that have been hardest hit by the global recession. We immediately started the search for local coordinators who could be involved in local plans and strategies to pull together job opportunities with local business, small business and, of course, government departments. To get things going, straightaway we put in place interim local employment coordinators. They have been working hard over the past months.

Today I can announce to the Senate that we have appointed seven permanent local employment coordinators. They are: Canberbury-Bankstown, Mark King; the Illawarra, Jane Robinson; Ipswich-Logan, Samantha Wilson; South Eastern Melbourne, Keith Pimblett; Northern and Western Adelaide, Pippa Webb; South West Perth, Jon McLlhone; and Northern Tasmania, Geoff Speers. We are also in the process of making appointments in the Richmond-Tweed and Clarence Valley and also the mid-North coast of New South Wales. I would like to congratulate those coordinators who have been appointed and I commend them on the work that is going to be undertaken over the next 12 months. (Time expired)