Mr Pallas (Tarneit) — It is  with great sadness that I  grieve for the people of Victoria and for  the 47 000 more Victorians who have become unemployed since this government came to  office. It really does demonstrate the priorities  that this  government  has set that  we  have one  government  speaker  after another spending a  lot of time not even  navel gazing at themselves but navel gazing at the opposition’s navel. This  is a  government that is looking for an excuse for its  own  inadequacies,  and  those  excuses  are  mounting  and  becoming  more hysterical  as jobs disappear  out  of the Victorian  economy.  As the community seeks leadership from the government and vision  for the  future, all  we get is more  and  more  excuses  from  a  government  that  is laden with  excuses  and ineptitude.

I grieve  for the many more jobs that will be lost — those  job losses that are yet to come — and  the people  whose livelihoods are threatened by the Napthine government’s  refusal to  stand up and fight for them. The last three years have been disastrous for Victorian workers. I grieve that jobs are not a priority for this government; indeed  they  are  a  by-line. They are an opportunity to blame somebody else  — anybody  else — for the government’s lack of  vision and  any effort  to  develop industry. Labor is not blind to the many  challenges  facing jobs in  this  state, nor  does  it  hold the  Napthine  government  exclusively responsible  for  all the  problems  that  are confronting  this  state, but the government needs to be either part of the solution or it is part of the problem.

The global economy  is fiercely competitive, and there will always  be pressures on jobs for one reason or another.

However, the very least that this government  could do is make an effort to meet the  challenges  that  confront  many companies and put many workers at risk  in order to demonstrate that it is actually concerned about representing the people who  elected it to  office. It  seems that  protecting Victorian  jobs is  not a priority for this Premier or for the members of this government. Certainly it is lower  down the  list  than ingratiating  themselves  with the  Prime  Minister, publicly abusing the Labor Party and  wasting  $8  billion  on  building the dud east-west tunnel.

This week we have heard a lot from  members of the government on the subject  of jobs,  and it  has revealed  the contempt  that they  feel for  the concerns  of working people. On Monday I read a comment on Twitter  by the member for Mitcham that I found particularly appalling.

She accused Labor of trying to save SPC jobs in order to distract attention from internal politics, which showed an odious  level  of  cynicism,  and  it  was  a recurrent  theme in the contribution to this debate from the member for Ferntree Gully.  People’s  livelihoods  are  not political  footballs  for this  side  of politics, but clearly they are an opportunity that those opposite cannot resist. Helping to make sure that ordinary people are able to get a decent job that will not disappear overnight is a fundamental part of what Labor is here to do.

Yesterday there  was  an article in  the  Australian Financial Review  about the future of the Shell  refinery at Corio. In it  the Treasurer is quoted as saying that he  has a strong preference for not losing  the 450 jobs at the facility. I was struck by his choice of language. Is this government a government?

Does  it have a  capacity  to do anything more  than  sit on the  sidelines  and prognosticate about what it would like to see happen in respect of the future of one of the  key employers in Geelong,  or  is it simply sitting  there waving it goodbye and trying to exculpate itself from any responsibility? This is the  new order. This is the end of the age of entitlement we are told — and this is from the sink-or-swim brigade. But of course its members do worse  than that. They do not just sit back and determine  whether or not a company or a  worker  sinks or swims. If they look like they might be getting out, they push them back into the deep end of the pool. So many in this state are not looking for  a handout but a hand up — to grow, to  become  stronger  in  circumstances where the challenges confronting this state are profound.

This coalition seems to see  the unrelenting series of announced job losses as a trivial distraction from the main business of its government, which is attacking the Labor Party and the internals of the Labor Party.

When thousands of  jobs are falling out of this state one would have thought the members of this government could at least content themselves with something that deals with bread-and-butter issues that affect people’s lives.

I grieve  for the increasing insecurity of  work in this state and  for the role that this government has played in failing to provide it as a priority. I grieve for the workers  who  want  secure  employment and full-time jobs but have found that full-time jobs are rare in the  coalition’s Victoria. According to the most recent labour force statistics, there are now 4800  fewer full-time jobs in this state than when this government  came to  office in  December 2010. Let us think about that. 

While the  population of this state has been growing  we have  4800 fewer full-time jobs than existed in this  state in  December 2010. That is a stinging indictment of the economic credentials of  the  management  of this state. IT is stinging because what it really tells us is that this is a government that wants to spend so much more of its time trying to find somebody to blame and trying to pull lint out of others’ imperfections that are perceived  rather than real. But whatever the government can do  it does not want to be held  to  account for its failure  to  show  a serious attempt at custodianship of this state’s economy. I find that  statistic truly amazing —  4800 fewer full-time jobs  since December 2010.

The Treasurer has subjected us all to quite a few Dorothy Dixers on jobs. I know that members are all wondering exactly how many there were, so I looked it up.

The number of Dorothy Dixers that the Treasurer has determined would  serve  him in extolling the virtues of his government’s achievements in the employment area amount to 12. That  is 12 Dorothy Dixers in  which he sought to effectively tell us that a  sow’s ear is a silk purse. One would think that in those 12 paroxysms of  self-congratulation he  would  see his  way  clear  to mentioning  that  his government is destroying full-time jobs.

Compare this  to the Labor  government, which created 382 000 full-time jobs while it was in office. This is an  average of 2800 jobs every  month for 11 years. During  Labor’s last 12 months in office it created 72 000 new  jobs. That is 20 000 more than  the coalition has created throughout its entire time  in office. But what I am really  proud of is that 67 000 of those 72 000 jobs were full-time jobs.

The casualisation  of our work force is  a source of deep  concern to Labor, but apparently it is not something that even registers on  the radar  of concerns of those opposite.

They are too busy patting themselves on the back and worrying about the internal politics of  their  opponents. One can see no greater demonstration of sloth and disregard for the responsibility of governing than the fact that this government spends its time pulling  lint out of its opponent’s  navel. What a joke. What  a disgusting  failure  to  take  on  the  responsibilities  of  high  office.  The casualisation of our work force is of  deep  concern to Labor, as I said. It  is also of deep concern to the 245 000 underemployed Victorians  who are looking to this government to do  something. The  Premier does  not accept that the rise of insecure employment is a bad thing, but the 245 000 self-described underemployed Victorians do, because it is their perception that they are not getting the work they want. 

We should think about that.  We have almost a  quarter  of a million Victorians feeling aggrieved about their access to the labour market.

In June of last year the  Premier encouraged  the Prime  Minister to  revive the coalition’s attempts to  change Australia’s workplace laws if he were  to become Prime  Minister. We all  remember  what a  vocal  supporter  of WorkChoices  the Premier was. The Premier has  been coy about his plan B for saving the thousands of jobs at SPC; in fact it was almost the case of a  company that they  dare not speak its name  in  this place so far  as those opposite were concerned.  I will give the Deputy Premier this: he mentioned  it in  passing and  he quickly moved on. But there is one member  of a coalition government who  is prepared to speak about it.

Sharman Stone, the federal member for the Shepparton area,  has  been  more than prepared to highlight the lies about the labour  costs in that workplace, as has the company. I would be interested to know whether plan B includes the desire to reduce wages and conditions.

I would be  interested  to know whether it includes any suggestion that workers’ entitlements should be  ripped away when  their  average wages  are  appreciably below the average  manufacturing wage level in  this country. The company itself says the conditions of employment  that are in place  add  no more than 0.1  per cent to its business  costs. What does Sharman  Stone say? She has said  that if anybody says that this is the cause  of the  company’s problems, they are lying. That is guts; that is what I call ‘stoning up’ — that is, when you are prepared to get out there and speak up on behalf of workers.

What have we  heard  from this government  about  the problems confronting  this company, and  what  has  this  government  done  to  help? We have heard, ‘We’re thinking about it’, ‘We’re talking’, ‘We’re going  to do something eventually — make no  mistake about it’. Where was  the Premier when he  was  needed by these workers? He stood out the front. He was standing in the bleachers.

He was holding up some peaches: he was standing in the bleachers holding  up the peaches  and saying and  doing  nothing constructive to  provide some hope about jobs and  security  for  a  company that is genuinely serious about putting real money in to grow a manufacturing facility for the future.

I grieve  for  manufacturing job losses.  I grieve for  Victoria’s manufacturing workers who have been hit harder than anyone else  by the continuing job crisis. The  story of Victorian manufacturing  under the coalition government has been a very  sad one  indeed, and it  tells us  a lot  about the  Napthine government’s attitude to employment. Over 38 000 workers in Victoria’s manufacturing industry have lost their jobs since the coalition government came to power — that is, 38 000 workers in Victoria’s manufacturing industry have lost their jobs since this government came to power.

Think about it. They are the same sort of workers that you  might have to look  in the face next time you go up to Shepparton and  tell them you might put your hand in your pocket and do something for them.

A bit over 80 per cent of Victoria’s manufacturing  jobs are  full time compared with 55 per cent of all jobs across the state as a whole. One out of every eight Victorian manufacturing workers has lost their job since this government came to power. However, the big issue is the Labor Party’s internals. It is great to see that those opposite are spending their time, effort, resources  and intellect — such  as  it  is  —  upon  the  wellbeing  of  those  one  in  eight  Victorian manufacturing  workers who  has  lost their job.  It  shows that  the  coalition members stand for the  big issues, which are to distract, deflect, defame and do whatever they can to avoid the responsibility of governing.

The problems in manufacturing are not totally those of the government, but it is not part of the solution. Last year  we saw jobs were in a particularly bad way. In January BlueScope Steel jobs went, and in February it was Telstra. March  was Target;  in  April,  Holden;  in  May,  Ford; in June, ANZ; in July,  Australian Defence Apparel;  in August, Murray  Goulburn; in September, Qantas; in October, Golden  Circle; in  November,  Healthscope Pathology;  and  in December  it  was Holden.

That list is  anything but comprehensive, but one thing is comprehensive and that is the refusal  of  government  members  to  acknowledge that they have anything to do with being part of the solution. They sit back — the tinfoil hat brigade  with  their  pointy headed economics — the sink or  swim  brigade  who basically absolve themselves of responsibility.

I grieve for Victorians, for Victorian workers  and for an economy that has been let  down by a government  that is self-obsessed and  unconcerned about people’s welfare.