REPS HANSARD: On 6 October the government will host a future jobs forum
Date published :
12
September
2011
Employment
Ms BRODTMANN (Canberra) (14:47): My question is
to the Prime Minister. How will the government continue to ensure
that Australians have both the benefit and the dignity of work in a
changing but strong economy?
Ms GILLARD (Lalor-Prime Minister) (14:47): I
sincerely thank the member for her question. It enables me to
advise the House that on 6 October the government will host a
future jobs forum. It will follow the tax forum. As the Deputy
Prime Minister and Treasurer has just outlined to the House, the
fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong. Indeed, our
economy is the envy of the world. We saw a good growth number. We
continue to see unemployment at a far lower rate compared with
countries like the US and the UK. We need to remind ourselves that
we went into the global financial crisis with an unemployment rate
around the same as the American unemployment rate. We have come out
of the global financial crisis and into these days beyond with an
unemployment rate that is pretty close to half the unemployment
rate in the United States of America. So we are able to offer
people the benefits and dignity of work, we are able to see growth
in our economy and we are seeing rapid growth-turbocharged
growth-in our resources sector, with more than $400 billion of
investment in the pipeline.
We understand that this also means that our currency is very
high. Our Australian dollar is high and will be high for some
period of time to come. That does put pressure on other sectors of
the economy-what we have referred to as patchwork pressures. I
therefore believe it is important that we bring together
representatives of business, of unions, of representative employer
organisations and academics to talk about jobs for the future. Our
economic fundamentals are strong today, but there is nothing more
important to this government than Australians having jobs, which is
why we acted so quickly and effectively to support jobs during the
global financial crisis. It is why we continue to work to support
jobs today. It is why we have put in place the policies and plans
that will enable us to see jobs in the future. This includes our
work in skills and apprenticeships; our work in human capital
generally; our work in rolling out infrastructure in roads, rail
and ports; our work in building the National Broadband Network and
bringing that new technology to Australia because it will equal new
jobs; our work in pricing carbon and the creation of a clean energy
future and clean energy jobs; our work with the manufacturing
sector to ensure that we continue to be a country that makes
things-and we will continue to resist the opposition's calls to
take hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars away from our
manufacturing sector. We will resist the opposition's calls to do
that because, unlike them, we want to see a country where we
continue to make automobiles and engage in high-value-added
manufacturing.
We believe it is an appropriate time, particularly following the
tax forum, to bring together representatives to talk about jobs for
the future. The government will be there and will be vitally
interested in jobs. Of course, I expect the opposition to ignore
the whole event because they are not interested in ensuring that
Australians have the benefits and dignity of work.
View original source (REPS HANSARD:
Questions Without Notice - Employment)
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