Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to bring a message of hope here tonight from the Kimberley, a beautiful part of my home state. Indeed, it's one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It is absolutely fantastic. If you haven't been there, I encourage you to visit. It's well worth the visit. It's also a region with endless potential. In my life before politics I spent a lot of time in the Kimberley. I had the great privilege of working up there with Generation One and the Minderoo Foundation and when I wasn't there I was often working on projects that were to be based in the region.

We know that the area is not without its challenges. We're working hard to address those. The Western Australian Department of Training and Workforce Development puts the unemployment rate across the Kimberley at 2½ times that of Perth. When you take Broome out of these calculations, the figure jumps to five or six times the unemployment rate of Perth. That's why it's critical to start to map out the opportunities that are available right across the Kimberley. They're there, but we need to work in partnership with those at the coalface, both local governments and service providers, to establish an effective pathway to employment. Without this, the potential output of the region will continue to be constrained.

The one thing I want to leave this place having achieved is increased workforce participation and long-term employment outcomes in some of Western Australia's most remote regions. In order to do this, the jobs need to be there and the training that is applicable to those jobs needs to be available. Both of those things currently exist in some form, but finding these jobs and training locals are two very separate processes that often occur in isolation.

The pipeline providing opportunities to those living in remote communities is broken. That's why I'm working with a group in the Kimberley called the zone to better align training opportunities with the jobs available in the Kimberley region. The zone is made up of the four shires in the Kimberley: the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, the Shire of Halls Creek, the Shire of Broome and the Shire of Derby-West Kimberley. This was formalised with the signing of an agreement with the state government. The Shire of Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the Shire of Christmas Island also joined the four shires to round out the membership.

The group was formed with a view to adopting a regional approach to strategic and community planning. They are showing real leadership in their desire to provide employment opportunities right across the Kimberley. We all admit that there is a great deal of work to do, but that's why I'm working with the zone to have a formalised agreement so that they can advocate as one voice. We are working together. We're seeking to identify jobs that are available now and those in the coming years. Some of these will be with the councils themselves. Once the job opportunities are mapped we can identify the skills that each position requires and align the right training opportunities. The vision is that, when someone signs onto a course, they'll be guaranteed employment at the end, should they pass all the assessments and prove to be competent in those jobs.

These jobs are diverse. They are from traditional tourism and construction jobs to working with Indigenous ranger programs and administration at local governments and with NGOs. There are a wide range of jobs available for people of all abilities and skill sets. Our initial estimate is that there will be 200 jobs across the region over the next two years. These are jobs that we found among the small group of employers that we've engaged with so far. We have only just begun, but we believe we can identify many more.

Through my working life I have regularly seen firsthand the impact that employment has on an individual. When they get their first pay cheque they can see over the horizon, support their family and partake in the opportunities that 21st-century life enables. We also know what a difference jobs make to our communities. We know that employment doesn't change everything, but without it nothing will change.

This project is still in its early stages, but I look forward to working with the zone, with all of the councils up there, to increase the Kimberley's workforce participation and to eliminate the training-for-training-sake model, which has underpinned much of what we've done in the past. I look forward to working with these communities to continue to see the economic development that I know will make a difference not just to those who get the jobs but their entire families and their communities.