Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, upon notice, on 6 November 2012:

Does the department agree with the article, published in The Australian on 17 August 2012, that states '85,600 jobs could be lost from manufacturing within the next five years unless the nation's productivity and competitiveness is improved'.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

Employment projections produced by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) are based in part on the Monash model developed by the Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University and Deloitte Access Economics projections, but also take into account recent employment trends and known industry developments at the time of compilation. The projections are published on DEEWR's Labour Market Information Portal (deewr.gov.au/lmip).

DEEWR's projections do not make any specific assumptions about productivity or competitiveness in the Manufacturing industry, nor has DEEWR performed any specific modelling on the impact of changes in productivity or competitiveness on employment in Manufacturing.