Issues: Keep Australia Working; Minimum Wage; Rio
JULIA GILLARD: It’s great to be here today, in my electorate of Lalor at Point Cook, with my Jobs Team. I’m here with Senator Mark Arbib, the Minister for Employment Participation and Parliamentary Secretary, Jason Clare, who is working with us on local employment initiatives.
When the new Jobs Team was appointed by the Prime Minister, I asked Senator Arbib and Parliamentary Secretary Jason Clare to prepare a report for me on what more the Government can do to keep Australia working.
Today, I have received from the new Jobs Team, an interim report on keeping Australia working. This interim report makes a set of recommendations to me about what the Government can do to continue to support Australian jobs during the difficult days of the global recession.
Key to the recommendations in this interim report is a recommendation that we should select 11 more priority employment areas.
These are areas of the country where we know that workers are particularly at risk. Where unemployment rates have historically been higher, where manufacturing, which is under pressure during these difficult economic days, is a big employer, and where education levels are lower than the national average and so people often need additional assistance to get the skills they need for employment.
Today I’m announcing, arising from this Keep Australia Working report, 11 new areas, including Melbourne’s North and West, where we are today.
In these areas we will be bringing a particular focus on supporting local employment initiatives and supporting Australian workers. Those who are in work, and those who lose work as a result of the global financial crisis. Of course, we want to build on the Government’s economic stimulus package.
Our economic stimulus package is all about jobs, and we see those jobs on display here today. A residential construction area supported by our First Home Owners’ Scheme, meaning that the new families who come and live here need new services, including new shopping centres and where we’re standing today will be one of those new shopping centres.
I’ll turn now to my colleagues, Senator Arbib and Jason Clare, for comments and then we’ll be very happy to take your questions.
MARK ARBIB: Thank you Julia, and can I just thank first, Jason Clare and the Department for working so rapidly to get these recommendations put together, the interim recommendations, and also to the Acting Prime Minister for getting these recommendations out as quickly as possible, so we can get on with the job.
We all know that the Government’s response to rising unemployment and the global recession has been a stimulus package, and at the moment we’re working on 35 000 projects, out the door within the next 12 months. That’s our primary response to minimising job losses.
At the same time as that though, the Government has in place job and training compacts, redundancy compacts, job programs to support those people who lose their jobs during these times of hardship. As part of those programs, we’ve got a local strategy in place and local employment areas.
What we’ve recommended to the Acting Prime Minister is that we increase those areas from the nine that are in place, to 20, so an additional 11 areas.
In those 11 areas, they will be getting extra assistance and resources. We will appoint interim Local Coordinators, out of the Department, to work with those local communities, working with business, working with the local job providers, and of course, working with unions and employees to ensure that they have a jobs strategy in place, a jobs plan in place, to move forward.
We’ll also be working with our local job champions, that’s Bill Kelty and also Lindsay Fox, who’ll be sitting down with those communities, sitting down with employers and working on those strategies.
From there, we’ll be implementing the strategies, but also we’ll be working in with Centrelink, towards holding Job Expos in those communities.
The stimulus package is providing a large number of job opportunities for local communities. Our job is to get those opportunities out there into the communities, let people know what’s available, and make sure that the effects of the stimulus are being felt across the country.
If you look at just one of the aspects, is insulation. The insulation program, the industry is telling us, is going to create 4 000 jobs and I think that’s a conservative estimate.
Our job, through these local priority areas, through the Local Coordinators, is to make sure that those jobs are getting created across the country. That’s what this interim report is about today, and that is what the Rudd Government’s about, supporting employment during these bad times, these global bad times, the global recession. Thanks.
JASON CLARE: Thanks Julia. The key recommendation in this report is the expansion of the Local Employment Priority Areas to another 11 areas of need across the country.
These are areas that have been hit hardest by the global recession, and they’re the areas in greatest need of support. We’re putting the resources where they’re needed, in the areas of greatest need, and what we’re adopting here is a whole-of-government approach.
You’ve got a Local Employment Coordinator to assist on the ground, all of the local industry, the local businesses and the local community that need help in that area. They’ll also help by giving special assistance through the $650 million Jobs Fund. That’s a fund to provide targeted assistance to create jobs in the local area, to support the development of apprenticeships and traineeships and get people working in those local areas.
We’ve also got the help of some old hands; people like Lindsay Fox and Bill Kelty. They’re going to be helping us by rolling out employment workshops in those local areas, and the first of those kick off next week, first on Tuesday in Dandenong, in Melbourne, then we travel to Tasmania on Wednesday, where we’ll be in Devonport, and then in Liverpool in South West Sydney next week.
Bill Kelty and Lindsay Fox will be working in these 20 Employment Priority Areas, helping the community to build regional, strategic employment plans to get people working in those areas and, as Mark said, in these areas we’ll also have the support of Centrelink.
Centrelink running Job Expos in those areas, and making sure that with our insulation program, that’s going to create so many jobs, that we get that moving on the ground quickly in these priority areas. These are our interim recommendations.
We’ve also committed to provide a further report to the Deputy Prime Minister by the 30th of September with further recommendations about how we can continue to improve and coordinate Government action and build a bridge to the future to make sure that we’re creating the jobs now, and the skills that we need now, for the jobs of the future. Jobs in broadband, jobs in Defence, green jobs as well, and jobs for an aging community.
What do we need to do now to create the jobs for the future. Thank you.
JULIA GILLARD: Questions.
JOURNALIST: Seems like you’ve more than doubled the number of priority employment areas. Does that indicate a worsening of the employment situation?
JULIA GILLARD: What that indicates is a further development in our plans to keep Australia working.
We said at the time that we announced the Priority Employment Areas, that we anticipated that there would be 20. We selected the initial areas and I’d like to thank my colleagues, Mark Arbib and Jason Clare, for making the recommendation to me to add these 11 new areas.
What we’ve done, and these areas have been independently assessed and independently decided upon and recommended to us, is we’ve looked at those areas that are at particular risk during the global recession, to bring a dedicated focus on jobs to those areas and to keep those areas working.
JOURNALIST: So they’re always going to be 20, but you [inaudible] which ones they are?
JULIA GILLARD: We indicated, initially, we thought there would be around 20. We’ve now indicated 20 areas. Obviously, we will keep a very close eye on all of the country.
The global recession is obviously a developing thing and the impact on Australia has become clearer over time, but we still have a long road to go. And as we go down that road, Keeping Australia Working will be working with these local communities, will be delivering the economic stimulus to support jobs. The jobs for today, building the infrastructure we need for tomorrow, and we’ll be keeping an eye on any additional communities that need further support.
JOURNALIST: What will Mr Fox and Mr Kelty be doing, specifically?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, I might ask Parliamentary Secretary Clare to describe that, [inaudible] the most.
JOURNALIST: You might remember that the Prime Minister, when he announced the Jobs Compact the Jobs and Training Compact back in April, that he’d spoken to Bill Kelty and Lindsay Fox and asked for their support and assistance in this task.
Back in the early nineties, during the recession of the nineties, Bill Kelty and Lindsay Fox toured the country, working with local businesses, talking to them about ways to keep people on and ways to create new jobs, new apprenticeships and traineeships in local communities. The Prime Minister said to them, can you help us to do it again? Can you give us your support, travel ‘round to these areas of greatest need in Australia and do a similar task to the one that you did before to keep Australia working. They’ve said sure, we’d be glad to help out.
That all starts next week in Dandenong, then Devonport, and then South West Sydney and working our way around the country with people like Bill and Lindsay, and other people that have got expertise in this area, to provide advice to employers on the ground, and community groups, to come up with ideas to keep people working and to create new jobs, new apprenticeships and traineeships, in the areas of greatest need.
JOURNALIST: Just on the minimum wage, Westpac said yesterday that yesterday’s decision would carve half a percentage point off wages growth across the economy. Are you concerned about the dampening effect on the economy from the decision to freeze wages?
JULIA GILLARD: What I said yesterday is my view and the Government’s view. We were disappointed with the Australian Fair Pay Commission decision.
We understood the Fair Pay Commission was confronting the most difficult environment in which to make minimum wages determinations, in many, many decades. But we do think that the Australian Fair Pay Commission didn’t get the balance right, but I support, the Government supports, the independent setting of minimum wages, so we accept the decision of the independent umpire, in this case, the Australian Fair Pay Commission, and for the future, our new industrial empire, Fair Work Australia.
JOURNALIST: What’s your opinion on the impact on the economy, though?
JULIA GILLARD: Just before I answer your question, and I will, can I just say one thing that should be remarked upon in relation to yesterday’s minimum wages decision, is it’s shown, yet again, just how out of touch Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party are with the needs of low paid Australians.
The party of Work Choices showed how out of touch it was when it allowed the safety net to be stripped away from these hard working Australians.
Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party showed how out of touch they were when they opposed the Government’s stimulus package and our support for jobs, and yesterday and today, Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberal Party are showing how out of touch they are by saying they think it’s appropriate for minimum wage workers to get nothing.
I think that minimum wage workers will look at that track record and quickly conclude that Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberal Party don’t understand how they live and the pressures on them.
On the economic impact of the minimum wages decision, obviously Mr Harper and his Fair Pay Commission weighed that economic impact. They were concerned about employment. We too, are concerned about employment. We don’t think that they struck the appropriate balance. We will see, obviously, what this decision means as it works through the economy, but it is a decision that we accept.
JOURNALIST: Will the Government listen to the group of economists that have come out today, fearing that the four major banks have too much power; there’s too little competition?
JULIA GILLARD: We’ve already taken action to increase competition between the banks. We, in particular, have put in measures to make it easier for people to switch banks if they think that they aren’t getting an appropriate deal .We want to see a competitive banking system, and we’ve already taken steps to facilitate greater competition.
JOURNALIST: Is there any intention of opening a peoples’ bank?
JULIA GILLARD: No, there’s not an intention of following the recommendations from the report today. We understand the concerns about competition in the banking sector, and we have already acted to address those concerns.
JOURNALIST: Will you be giving strong writing orders to Fair Work Australia to more seriously consider a pay rise for minimum wage earners in January?
JULIA GILLARD: Independent umpire means independent umpire, and we’ve set up the system so that there is a set of wage fixing principals, which asks Fair Work Australia to weigh the circumstances and living standards of low paid workers against all of the macroeconomic means like support for employment, inflation and competitiveness, and having set those broad principles, we’d be asking the independent umpire to get on with the job. As has been historic practice, we would of course make submissions to Fair Work Australia as it sets minimum wages.
JOURNALIST: Do you expect that the [inaudible] six months now, lower paid workers will go for six months now, with no pay rise, that that will be part of a consideration, perhaps, with a chance for a bigger rise?
JULIA GILLARD: Obviously, Fair Work Australia will decide this independently. Clearly, one factor which will be before Fair Work Australia when it makes its decision is past rises in minimum wages.
JOURNALIST: Would you anticipate that the Government would make a stronger or more detailed or more specific submission than it did this time around?
JULIA GILLARD: We’ll make a submission at the appropriate point. The appropriate point is going to be during the first few months of next year. We’re talking about a minimum wages decision, which will come into effect on the 1st of July next year.
Can I say, on minimum wages fixing, it was part of our Forward with Fairness plan to ensure that the fixing of minimum wages was returned to the central industrial umpire. We’ve created that new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia. We’ve also acted so that minimum wages decisions, in future, will come into effect to coincide with the start of the financial year, which we think is better for business and will streamline the way in which businesses can do pay adjustments.
JOURNALIST: So the submission won’t be any stronger next time?
JULIA GILLARD: I didn’t say that. What I said is we would make the submission at the appropriate point and, obviously, we will be dealing with the economic circumstances at that point.
JOURNALIST: The ACTU yesterday said that the decision was the final act of Work Choices. Is that your opinion?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, I’ll let the ACTU speak for itself .The Fair Pay Commission was obviously created by the former government, by the former Liberal Government. It was created as part of a package of reforms. That package of reforms, most controversially, brought us Work Choices, with the ability for the safety net to be stripped away from workers and for workers to be dismissed for no reason at all, with no remedy.
Those very hated aspects of Work Choices is what we have fixed with our new Fair Work system. I am not criticising Mr Harper or the Fair Pay Commission. I understand that they were confronting a very difficult environment in which to set minimum wages.
JOURNALIST: Is the Victorian ALP [inaudible] to clean up its branch structure [inaudible]?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, I’ll leave that as a matter for the Victorian ALP, and particularly, the Victorian Branch Secretary, to comment on.
JOURNALIST: Is there a need for greater assistance now for low income workers, after yesterday’s decision, like increased transfer payments, or the like?
JULIA GILLARD: The Government, of course, has taken a series of important steps to support working Australians and, particularly, low income families.
Low income families have received economic stimulus payments, the very money and support that Malcolm Turnbull said shouldn’t be in their hands.
They’ve received the benefit of tax cuts. They’ve received assistance in the form of our Education Tax Refund, to help with the costs of getting kids to school, so those supports have been put in by the Rudd Labor Government because we do want to support low income working families.
JOURNALIST: The Government’s view on these Rio workers in China?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, I’ve received some advice from our Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I understand we are providing consular assistance, that there is one Australian involved, and consular assistance is being provided to that person.
JOURNALIST: Does the way they’re being treated concern you?
JULIA GILLARD: We are still investigating the matter and consular assistance is being provided. I’m not, at this point, in a position to come to any conclusions or make any public statements about the motivations behind the matter. We’ll obviously deal with all of that in due course. We are providing consular assistance to an Australian citizen.
JOURNALIST: Considering the protests here today, do you have a problem with that Southern Cross flag on the signage, which is illegal, on your current regime [inaudible]?
JULIA GILLARD: My emphasis on industrial relations is about the substance, not the signage, and the substance of industrial relations is about working people and their employers working together, working cooperatively, getting on with the job, getting on with the job of creating productive, harmonious workplaces, and if we can do that, then there are gains to be shared, because it’s better for business and better for working people.
JOURNALIST: So there’s no problem with the flag?
JULIA GILLARD: I’m not concerned about signage questions. I’m concerned about substance, and the substance is about cooperative workplace relations. It’s about freedom of association. It’s about the right of working people to choose to be represented by a union, or choose to not be represented by a union. Those things are important and they’re delivered by our Fair Work laws. We’ll take one more question.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] direct representations [inaudible] Rio Tinto merger?
JULIA GILLARD: Look, the limit of my advice is that we are providing consular assistance obviously. If further advice becomes available during the course of the day, we’ll make sure that it’s available. Okay, thank you.
ENDS.