SUBJECTS: ABS Labour force figures; Penalty Rates; Wage Growth;

BRENDAN O’CONNOR, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS: Thanks very much for coming. It’s great to be in Townsville, to be in this part of Australia, a wonderful spot, but I’m here to talk about, firstly, my response and Labor’s response to the ABS figures that came out today that measure unemployment.

We welcome the fact that there are jobs, jobs growth, however we are still concerned with the underlying problems with the labour market.

There are still 1.1 million Australians underemployed. There are still 19,000 people that are in fact additional to the unemployment figures than was the case when the Abbott/Turnbull Government was elected. Youth unemployment has risen from 12.1 to 12.4 per cent. And Queensland is in fact the second highest unemployment state in Australia, and that’s not good enough.

It’s for that reason we do ask the Government to have an industry and regional and economic plan for jobs growth. And I think there needs to be more done by the Prime Minister and by the Minister for Employment and others.

I also want’ the touch now upon wage growth, because it is clear now from the McKell Institute report that  cutting wages or low wage growth has an impact on retail spending.

The jobs in this arcade require people to consume goods and services for their businesses to prosper. If we want to see further employment in retail and other sectors of the economy we need to make sure people feel confident enough to buy goods and services.

But when wages are falling as they have been for two years – in fact wage growth is at its lowed in 25 years. When you have a Government that wants to see cuts to thousands of workers in Townsville by supporting the cuts to penalty rates you will see an effect to aggregate demand which means that consumption falls, which means business confidence and consumer confidence is down and that will lead to fewer job opportunities down the track. So it’s really important the Government reconsiders its position.

And while I’m here I might have to say that the Member for Dawson in Mackay and of course covering parts of Townsville has reneged on his commitment to support the private members bill to stop the cuts to penalty rates.

George Christensen should not contest the next election because he has fundamentally dishonoured his promise to this constituency when he said he would support a private members bill to stop the cuts to penalty rates. In fact, the amendment moved last week by Federal Labor was exactly the legislation that George Christensen proposed to stop the cutting of penalty rates.

He got front page news in Townsville and Mackay and other parts of this beautiful part of Queensland when he said he was going to stand with workers and support no further cuts. And yet last week he actually voted with the Government and voted down his own private members bill.

So he’s a lion in regional Queensland, he’s a mouse in Canberra. He is being fundamentally dishonest with the people of his electorate and beyond, and indeed to all workers in Australia.

Given how he expressly committed to supporting the Bill that would stop further cuts which happen next year and the year after, we do believe that he has so dishonoured his office that we believe he should come out and say he will not be contesting the next election, because he has been so deceitful with the Australian people – but most particularly, to his own constituents of the seat of Dawson.

For that reason, he should consider his position. It’s a reprehensible act on his part to get all the benefits of saying he would stand with workers, and then come into the parliament and vote against those interests, and against working people in this area.

Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: In regards to Townsville specifically [inaudible]

O’CONNOR: Look, unemployment here is still pretty high. Of course we are happy to see the stadium being built, that will obviously provide jobs. There is investment that Labor wants to see in water security infrastructure, we would like to see more jobs there. I think there are some positive signs here of job opportunities, but one of the problems we have is that there are still few too jobs that are fulltime, permanent jobs.

People can’t get a bank loan if they have a casual job. They can’t pay a mortgage if they have a part-time job and want a full time job. So, while we will always welcome jobs, we need to make sure they are good jobs, and when people need them, that they are permanent full-time jobs as well.

I’m an optimist. I believe that we can do well, but I do believe that more has to be done, and our job in the Opposition is to hold the Government to account.

It is notable that in Queensland, which usually has a relatively low unemployment rate now has the second highest in the country. It is also true that regional Queensland has higher unemployment rates than that of Brisbane, and I think more needs to be done. That’s why I talking about making sure there are more regional policies - federal governments working with state governments and local government and local businesses to find opportunities. I think more can be done there.

But look, that’s why I am here – to talk to businesses and to talk to local people. What I also want to stress is this – if you support cutting wages, you are actually supporting cutting consumer spending, and that will affect the retail sector. Going into Christmas, let’s remember the thousands of workers in this area, in this community on Christmas Eve, which is a Sunday, they will be getting less money on this Christmas Eve than they did last Christmas Eve.

That means they will be spending less money in the local economy. For that reason – it’s not just to support workers, we say this to support businesses – we want to see wage growth and there has been no wage growth in Australia. In fact wages have been falling for the last couple of years and we would like to see the government help ensure that does not continue to happen.

JOURNALIST: You did kind of touch on it there, but specifically what kind of policy do you have that as far as generating jobs for this area?

O’CONNOR: Well I think firstly we need to use the leveraging of federal government investment. That’s why we supported more on the Burdekin Falls dam, that’s why we also look to invest in water security infrastructure, $100 million before the last election. That’s why it took really Labor to get the federal government to ultimately match us on building this stadium.

That’s certainly what governments can do, to provide greater opportunities for work and as you know there’s a multiplying effect if you get construction going it has a multiplying effect on other sectors of the local economy. But also I think there just needs to be more engagement. One of the ways you find out opportunities in a region like this is not to do it from Canberra, but to sit down with businesses here and talk about what do they need to make sure we can improve employment. So federal government is a very big, macro decision making government but it can actually get down and granulate its policies if it listens to local businesses and local communities. What we don’t see enough of is the federal government sitting down with businesses in this city or indeed other parts of regional Queensland and we should see more of that. What we see instead is stunts.

We’ve seen a stunt by the Member for Dawson who said he was going to cross the floor and stop the cuts to penalty rates, and yet when it came to the vote last week he did not do that. He dishonoured his own position, he dishonoured his commitment to his electorate and for that reason, Federal Labor believes that he has dishonoured that commitment, that he has broken his trust with his constituency, he should come out now and say that he will either support the position that we took, in the new year, or he should not contest the next election because of his conduct.

It really is bad form when you tell everybody in your community what you are going to do and you do the exact opposite when you go to Canberra and we hope he rethinks his position with respect to that.

JOURNALIST: Do you have those Townsville numbers off the top of your head?

O’CONNOR: Look I know that the unemployment figure here has been 10 per cent. We don’t get variations on a month by month basis for communities like Townsville. We know that youth unemployment is closer to 20 per cent, in fact it’s in excess of 20 per cent in Townsville, that’s a really scary number. Young people trying to enter the labour market, we do think there needs to be more effort to ensure we allow young people to access the market, either they should be earning or learning.

The worst thing that can happen to young people is that they are neither in education or in the labour market. So again that means that business confidence has to be higher so that people are employing young people.

I’d also say the overuse by the federal government of temporary work visas, the holiday maker visa, the student visa sometimes and indeed the 457 visa and other visas has meant that sometimes businesses are looking overseas first rather than looking locally first.

We want to see that Australians get opportunities first and that you look local first and if there’s a need for the labour supply that comes from overseas on a temporary basis, fine, but it shouldn’t be the first call; it should be the last resort.

Now, one of the reasons I think regional Queensland has such high youth unemployment is that there is a very significant use of temporary work visas from overseas workers and that sometimes is of the detriment or to the detriment of young people in the region. So, I think that area should be better handled by the federal government and not issuing so many visas when unemployment among young people is going through the roof, that is a tragedy.

The other clear thing is that if you do not get people from the labour market early enough, it gets harder and harder for them to actually connect to the labour market to find a job going forward. It takes longer and longer if they do not find themselves getting into the labour market once they leave school, so really a lot more needs to be done there as well.

JOURNALIST: You talk about stunts. Is flying all the way up to Townsville to criticise another MP a stunt?

O’CONNOR: Look, firstly I’m here because regional Queensland matters. Secondly I’m here to listen to regional Queensland and I’d be criticised if I didn’t come to regional Queensland. So, it seems to me important, I have a Shadow Ministerial responsibility for employment, talk to the regions across the country.

So, I’m absolutely happy to be here and will continue to come to Townsville and go to Mackay and go to Cairns and other parts of Queensland, as I will other parts of the country. It’d be remiss of me not to do so. But I have to say the reason I’ve had to really hold George Christensen to account is because of his conduct.

It was George Christensen who said to this community that he was going to support a bill in the parliament. It was George Christensen who said he was going to stop cutting penalty rates by crossing the floor. Well, he had his opportunity last week and he did not support that bill, a bill that was reflecting his own private members bill, instead he dishonoured his agreement with his community. And yes I should hold him to account for that and I’m very happy to be talking to his community about that and say, this is not fair, you don’t say one thing in your electorate, then you go to Canberra and then dishonour that commitment. That has to be called out.

What George Christensen hoped was he would dishonour his agreement last week, we’d go into Christmas and no one would criticize him. Well quite frankly what he did was reprehensible last week. He told everybody he was going to support workers. He got very, very positive media locally for doing that. And then he went into the chamber last week, into the parliament and did the exact opposite. It has to be called out.

When federal members of parliament tell their communities one thing and fundamentally do the other then he should be held to account and I’m very happy to be holding him to account, as should any member who talks in that way and does the exact opposite.

JOURNALIST: How many businesses are you meeting with on the ground today?

O’CONNOR: We’ll I’ll been talking to series of businesses. I’ve already spoken to some before I got here. And I’ll be talking to retail and small businesses alike because it’s really important that we are informed by their views. We need to know what they believe federal governments can do by the way of infrastructure or indeed by the way of training places that might be needed in areas or emerging demand. These are really important issues for businesses and you cannot get that perspective in Canberra.

You have to travel and you have to have your policies informed not just by Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane but by the regions as well, and I’m very happy to be here for that. And also talk to workers. Those workers who on Christmas Eve, if they are working on the Sunday, will actually be paid less than they were last year. And I’m afraid to say after July 1 next year they will be paid less again if we can’t stop the penalty rates decision.

JOURNALIST: In terms of getting outside of Canberra, is decentralisation the next step in that? Would you support having actual government departments move up here?

O’CONNOR: It should be on a cost-benefit analysis basis. We need to make sure the taxpayers not paying more money to dislocate. We do have agencies that are of course out of Canberra and they make perfect sense. The ADF of course are located usually in Northern Australia. Townsville, of course, is a very important community that hosts thousands of ADF personnel over many, many years and that’s been a great boon to this community. And that’s a very important thing.

Indeed Customs and other commonwealth agencies have a lot of resources and assets in Queensland. So I think we need to look at what we would be moving or decentralising. If it makes sense if it’s going to be good in the public interest, in the national interest.

But of course if those boxes can be ticked we would look to do that. What you don’t want to do though is remove experts in an agency and just move it for the sake of moving it if it means taxpayers will pay more money for it and you will lose expertise in doing so. So I think you need to measure each case on a case by case basis before you make that decision.