Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is always interesting to follow the responsible minister, Senator Abetz in this case. We have heard him deliver yet again a speech that he is so familiar and at ease with—a speech of excuses and insults, a speech with no vision for Australia, a speech full of anti-union rhetoric and very damaging plans for Australia. He tells us that his government has a plan for this country. It is a plan that would drive down wages, see fewer jobs and make things harder for people on welfare.

Life is getting tough. What I found in January, a time when you can get out and meet more people both as part of work and at social engagements, was that the issue of jobs came up time and time again. People were concerned about their job security. If they did not have a job, they were concerned about where they would find one. But the biggest issue was the concern of parents wondering what the future for their children would be. They wondered whether there was any hope and questioned who was going to come up with a plan for the transition that Australia is currently going through, with the resources boom starting to recede. Sadly, however, we have a government that is locked into just looking after the big end of town, something that they do so well and something that Senator Abetz is well acquainted with.

Loss of jobs, the subject of this matter of public importance, is certainly a very critical issue for New South Wales, where the loss of jobs has been considerable. Over the last 13 years, the loss of manufacturing jobs in New South Wales has been enormous—more than 18 per cent. Some 53,000 jobs have been lost in the manufacturing sector. That plays out in such a damaging way.

I was recently in Smithfield, in Western Sydney, where I met people from the Latin-American community. Many people live there. I met fathers who no longer have work. They were very worried about the impact that has on their families—not just the lost income and the fact that they cannot provide for their families, as they are so obviously committed to doing, but also the implications for their role in the family and the example it sets for their children. These men came to this country with great hopes for the future for their whole family. Many of their children are in higher education. But now, at a time when they really want to be helping their children, these men are unemployed.

Another very distressed area in New South Wales is the Illawarra. I understand that, at 15.3 per cent unemployment, which is three times the national average, it has the highest unemployment rate of any region and that youth unemployment there is well over 20 per cent. I often travel by train when I am working in or visiting that area. Even sitting at the railway station, you can feel the depressing impact the high levels of unemployment are having. It is very serious. This is what the Abbott government is pushing more and more people into.

We do need a new plan. We need a big shift because this lack of vision is doing so much damage. Today we, the Greens, announced our south-east stimulus package to address the very problems this debate has at its heart: how to create jobs in our communities, whether in the outer western suburbs, in regional Australia or in rural Australia. We need that plan and we are looking very closely at what can be done in south-eastern Australia. We can achieve a skilled, clean and thriving economy.

The issue of employment needs considerable attention because, as I have just mentioned, we are in the midst of a transition. If we do not address that in a constructive way, in a planned way, we will see the loss of even more jobs. But instead we are seeing that the Abbott government's agenda, so clearly and worryingly articulated by Senator Abetz, is to drive down wages and conditions. Our stimulus package is a practical solution which can be funded from the $12 billion this government is handing out every year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. This is at a time when much of the world is already turning its back on the coal industry and on many aspects of the fossil fuel industry more broadly. A responsible government would be planning for the transition of our economy away from reliance on those fossil fuels and towards clean energy. But instead we see a government just wanting to pour more corporate welfare into these dying industries. (Time expired)