Acknowledgements
* Tony Nicholson, Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence
* Cr Daniel Mulino, Deputy Mayor, City of Casey Council
* Cr Bill Pearson, Mayor, Cardinia Shire Council
* Deputy Prime Minister
* Minister for Employment
* Anthony Byrne
* State Members and Local Councillors
Introduction
Two days ago, I was at the G20 Summit in London.
Today, I am with you in this great local community in the City of Casey in Melbourne.
Both these meetings are about one core challenge: in the midst of a severe global recession, how do we rebuild our economy, and how do we rebuild jobs?
The truth is we are experiencing the worst global recession in three-quarters of a century.
Every country.
Every economy.
Every industry.
Virtually every community.
And for the first time in three-quarters of a century, all at the same time.
But in the midst of all the complex economic jargon, all the political debates, and all the media commentary, where the rubber hits the road is in one basic thing: jobs.
Jobs in local communities like this one in the City of Casey.
And in local communities like it all over the world.
Because the impact of this global recession is very local.
Which means we must act locally as well.
It affects community life.
It affects family life.
And it affects individuals in a deep and often scarring way.
Unemployment can undermine human dignity, and self-respect.
Our responsibility as Australians (government and community together) is not to stand idly by and allow the unemployed to be simply thrown to the wolves as the victims of some failure of a fundamentalist free market ideology.
Our responsibility is to intervene.
Because those who lose their jobs are not to blame.
Our responsibility is to intervene.
Not to deny the problem.
But to embrace it in all of its depth, its complexity and its gathering speed and force.
And then to act by deploying the full resources of government and the community to reduce its force while recognising we cannot eliminate its impact.
And that is what I am here to talk to you about today.
And also to hear from you about what more we can do.
Because the truth is we are all in this together:
* all nations around the world;
* all levels of government within our nation Australia (federal, state and local);
* businesses large and small;
* business and unions together against a common foe, unemployment;
* the community itself, in all its local dynamism, local creativity and local sense of the possible.
Because as I have learned over the last 16 months as Prime Minister, all wisdom does not lie in Canberra.
But as Prime Minister I am also here to issue a national call to arms: and that is for the nation to bind together as one in a national campaign against unemployment.
Everyone has a part to play.
While government must take the lead, everyone has a part to play.
And our end point is clear: to do whatever it takes at the global, national and local level to support local jobs and to help those who lose their jobs to retrain and to find a new job.
Global Action
The causes of the economic crisis are global.
And global action is necessary to underpin the prospects of global economic recovery.
In a global economy, Australia, like other countries, is not an island.
Australian jobs are directly affected by our trade with the rest of the world; our investment in the rest of the world and them in us; and the continuation of global financial flows, the life-blood of business and employment everywhere.
The good news is that in London we agreed on a global strategy for global economic recovery.
When I sat down the other night with fellow leaders from 20 of the biggest economies in the world, I said to my colleagues around the table that what began as a global financial crisis had already become a crisis in the global economy and was now becoming a global crisis in unemployment.
None of my colleagues disagreed.
Not one of them.
Because they all know it to be true, from their own local experience.
And what they also know to be true is that rebuilding local jobs can only happen through concerted global action.
It is an unusual but an empowering thing, to sit down with the King of Saudi Arabia, the President of communist China, the President of capitalist America and Presidents from countries as diverse as South Africa, South Korea and Brazil, all speaking different languages, but all speaking the one language: what must we do to rebuild jobs?
That is why in the very beginning of the London Communiqué issued only a day or so ago, it states in black and white that ‘our global plan for recovery must have at its heart the needs and jobs of hard-working families...'
The good news is that despite those who never thought it possible, governments from all continents representing 85 per cent of the global economy agreed on a global strategy for global economic recovery.
A strategy on global economic stimulus, on restoring global banks to health, on acting ahead of the curve on future global financial markets, on reforming the regulations on banking to reduce the risk of future crises; and to hold the line on new protection which would destroy more jobs everywhere.
The sobering news is that this will take time to implement and to yield its full effect.
These combined actions do not represent a silver bullet.
And there's more work to be done.
But they do however represent the combined resolve of the world to act as one and to embrace a global economic strategy for global recovery never seen before in modern economic history.
And with one galvanising objective: how to restore growth and support jobs.
National Action
Global action must also be reinforced by concerted national action - right here, on the home front.
That's why the Australian Government is implementing an economic stimulus plan for the nation, to reduce the impact of the global recession on Australian jobs.
This plan has four main parts.
First, beginning last October, we have acted to stabilise Australian financial markets including providing a Government guarantee to every single Australian depositor in a bank, building society or credit union, to maintain confidence at home while we have seen confidence shattered abroad, with the result that our four major banks remain among the 11 strongest banks in the world.
Second, also starting last October, we took early and decisive action to stimulate the economy by providing payments to pensioners, carers, veterans and families doing it tough, thereby supporting the 1.5 million Australians whose jobs are in the retail and wholesale sector.
Third, also to stimulate the economy and support jobs we have invested directly in our housing sector with a trebling in the First Home Buyers assistance, the single biggest government investment in affordable housing in history, a new plan to install ceiling insulation in every owner-occupied dwelling in the country and all supported by a record 4 percentage point cut in interest rates.
Fourth, to further stimulate the economy we have begun a massive long-term investment in the nation-building infrastructure we will need for the 21st century, including the largest school modernisation and repair program the country has ever seen - to provide work for carpenters, plumbers and electricians across each of Australia's nearly 10,000 primary and secondary schools.
Finally, we have done this by drawing on the strong Budget surplus we delivered last year.
These are hard decisions for the Government to take, but we are living in very hard times.
Temporary deficits based on temporary borrowings, to boost the economy in the downturn, is the responsible course of action.
Our resolve throughout will be to take action to return the Budget to surplus once global economic growth recovers and then use those surplus funds to repay our temporary borrowings.
Notwithstanding the fact that our borrowings as a percentage of the economy are one tenth the average borrowings of the world's developed economies.
As with global economic action, our national economic stimulus plan does not represent a silver bullet.
As I have said before, I cannot stop this global recession from crashing across Australia's shores.
But I can act to cushion the impact of the storm once it has hit.
The most recent growth and employment data from the OECD makes it virtually inevitable that Australia will go through a period of negative economic growth ahead.
28 of the 30 most developed economies in the world are already in recession or have experienced at least one quarter of negative economic growth.
Seven of Australia's ten largest trading partners are already in recession
Because of the deepening global recession, the economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.
Our budget will come under greater pressure.
But the alternative is to do nothing.
And rather than reduce the impact of the global economic storm as we have done, to instead expose all Australian workers to its full force.
That is not our approach.
Nor will it be our approach.
Our strategy is right for the times.
A strategy to see Australia through the storm.
Local Action
The impact of this global recession is not merely a matter of global and national economic statistics.
Statistics are lifeless.
The impact of this global recession is felt here on the ground, in real families in real local communities like this one in the City of Casey.
It is communities like this where unemployment hits early and hard.
I have no intention whatsoever of gilding the lily.
In February, unemployment rose by 47,000 people.
In Dandenong, a short drive from here, the numbers applying for unemployment benefits in January rose to nearly 3000 - a 13 per cent rise over the previous month.
In Glen Waverley and Springvale it was more than 13 per cent.
In Cranbourne, right here in this community, it was 15.5 per cent.
Fifty jobs gone from Nissan in South Dandenong, 115 from Kenworth in Bayswater, more than 150 from Bosch in Clayton.
And 255 gone from Holeproof - a Pacific Brands company - just down the road in Nunawading.
Those of you who live in this community know the stories only too well.
These local impacts demand a national response.
And they demand a local response.
That is why I have come to the City of Casey today, to announce a new Jobs and Training Compact for Australia.
Our Jobs and Training Compact will have three parts:
* A Compact with Young Australians;
* A Compact with Australians who have been retrenched;
* A Compact with Local Communities - communities like Cranbourne - where unemployment has hit hard.
* First, our Compact with Young Australians.
This Government has resolved not to repeat the mistakes of previous governments - which is to reduce their commitment to training in a downturn in order to save money.
We cannot afford today's school leavers becoming tomorrow's long-term unemployed.
Nor do we intend to shy away from the great ambitions we have set for the nation in the implementation of our Education Revolution.
In fact now is the time to drive these reforms even harder, because they will strengthen our economy by improving the skills of our workforce - skills which can be fully deployed as we emerge from the global recession.
ABS data shows for example that 20 per cent of 19 year olds - about 60,000 young people - do not have Year 12 or equivalent qualifications.
About 16.5 per cent of 20 to 24 year olds - 238,000 Australians - do not have Year 12 or equivalent qualifications.
The time has come to act on this problem - a problem rendered even more urgent by the unfolding economic downturn and increasing unemployment.
The government has already announced new measures to support apprenticeships:
* 3,650 additional pre-apprenticeship places;
* $145 million to support thousands of ‘out-of-trade' apprentices who have been laid off by their employers; and
* a preference provision for businesses engaged in our $30 billion Nation-Building and Jobs Plan, who demonstrate a commitment to retain and employ new apprentices and trainees.
Second, unemployed young people are also eligible for one of the 711,000 training places released under the $2.1 billion Productivity Places Program - designed to help all workers upgrade their skills for the future.
But more needs to be done - much more.
That's why at this month's meeting of State and Territory Governments, the Australian Government will be proposing that every young Australian under the age of 25 is given a school, apprenticeship, training or higher education place to ensure that our young people are properly skilled for when the economy recovers.
This Compact with Young Australians will mean that young Australians under the age of 25 will have an entitlement to a training place or any registered course in which the young person can meet admission requirements, and which will result in improving that young person's current qualifications.
Second, we will also ask State and Territory Governments to lift the mandatory age at which young people must be in school or engaged in training or employment - and we will ask them to bring forward the already agreed COAG goal of 90 per cent Year 12 or equivalent attainment from 2020 to 2015. That will mean starting now.
Third, the Australian Government intends to alter the participation requirements for income support for young people and their families by making education and training the single most important precondition for receiving Youth Allowance.
So at a time when employment prospects are poor, the Australian Government wishes to send a clear message to Australian young people.
If you haven't completed Year 10, you should be in school.
If you are under 17, you should be in full-time school, training, higher education or full time work.
If you don't have a Year 12 or equivalent qualification you should be in school or training to attain an equivalent qualification.
I will not stand idly by and watch a generation of young people have their potential, their talents and their enthusiasm wasted in an economic downturn.
All these measures are aimed at helping our young people to use the difficult time that lies ahead in an employment market that is not of their making, to lift their skills for the future.
Good for young people.
Good for the Education Revolution.
Good for productivity.
And good for the Australian economy.
Compact with Retrenched Workers
The second part of our new Jobs and Training Compact is our Compact with Retrenched Workers.
Already the Government has announced measures to make it easier for retrenched workers to access Newstart Allowance by making the eligibility criteria twice as easy to meet as it was before.
We have also invested a further $300 million to help retrenched workers to get immediate access to appropriate employment assistance to help find new training or a new job. This brings our investment in reformed and upgraded employment services for jobseekers to more than $4 billion.
We have also invested more than $2 billion to fund more than 711,000 training places including 319,000 places identified for jobseekers, 10,000 places for workers in industries facing long term decline, and 10,000 places for workers who have been newly retrenched, concentrating on Certificate 3 and 4-level qualifications.
In less than a year since we announced this overall program, some 92,000 jobseekers have already enrolled in training courses.
However the immediate problems facing many families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs is the anxiety and fear which arises from: how do I pay my mortgage, how do I pay off my car?
These are real bottom line concerns around kitchen tables right across Australia.
That's why some time ago, I asked the Treasurer to negotiate an agreement with Australia's big four banks on a comprehensive package of assistance to working families who lose their jobs.
So today, I am pleased to announce the outcome of the Treasurer's work with the banks, which provides for the better handling of borrowers in hardship through loss of employment.
In relation to mortgages, the banks will now work with borrowers suffering from employment hardship to negotiate postponing for up to 12 months the dates from which payments are due under their mortgage contract, with interest to be capitalised into the loan.
The banks are also prepared to consider extending the period of the mortgage contract and reducing the amount of each payment due under the contract.
Banks also indicated that on other loans (including car loans) they would be prepared to consider providing interest-only repayment options where appropriate.
The banks have also indicated their preparedness to consider fee waivers for borrowers in hardship cases.
Of course, these options won't be appropriate in every case, and banks will make assessments based on the borrowers' ability to meet new contractual obligations in the long term.
But the Government's purpose in its negotiations with the banks has been clear - to ask the banks to provide maximum flexibility for borrowers suffering temporary hardship through enforced unemployment for the 12 month period ahead.
I'd like to publicly thank the banks for the goodwill they have demonstrated so far in this area, including the decisions announced by the Commonwealth Bank a few weeks ago.
Whether you're a banker or a battler, it's in every Australians' interest that we pull together; because that's the only way we will see the nation through these tough global conditions.
More remains to be done for retrenched workers and the government stands ready to build on our new Compact with Retrenched Workers as necessary in the future.
Compact with Local Communities
The third part of our new Jobs and Training Compact is our Compact with Local Communities which have been hardest hit by the global crisis.
Already the Government is acting at a local level through, for example, the local implementation of the $30 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan passed by the Parliament last month.
Our ambition is to turn every one of our more than 7,500 primary schools in the country into a construction site; to do the same for 500 of our secondary schools; and for billions of dollars of repairs, maintenance and minor works across every school campus in the country - all designed to generate local jobs and to improve local school and community infrastructure.
For example, schools in the City of Casey (one of only 565 local government areas in the country) like Holy Family in Doveton, Cranbourne Primary School in Cranbourne and Casey Grammar in Cranbourne East will be eligible to receive Australian Government grants of up to $3 million each over the coming months.
Second, the Government is also implementing an $800 million program, in partnership with local government across the nation through our Local Community Infrastructure Program.
We are doing this because we believe as a general rule that local governments are good at getting local community infrastructure projects going quickly.
And because these projects can be done quickly, local jobs can flow quickly.
Again let me give you a local example where this area has already received over $2 million in investment in the first instalment of the program.
These projects include:
* Upgrading of the Casey Fields Sportsground;
* Refurbishment of 16 tennis courts;
* Upgrade of 13 playgrounds and a netball pavilion;
* The construction of a new cafe and kitchen at the Aquatic Centre; and
* The landscaping of Berwick Springs.
But more needs to be done.
That's why today I am announcing that we will invest $20.8 million to employ Local Employment Coordinators in regions most affected by job losses.
We will initially appoint them to seven regions:
* Here in Casey, covering communities in south-eastern Melbourne
* In Canterbury and Bankstown covering south-western Sydney
* In the Illawarra, south of Sydney
* In the Ipswich - Logan corridor in south-east Queensland
* In northern and western suburbs of Adelaide
* In south-west Perth
* In northern Tasmania
These Coordinators will be appointed by next month.
More will be added over time.
The mission statement of these Local Employment Coordinators is to work directly with local government, with local business, with local community organisations helping to make sure that new national training programs are being properly delivered locally and that local infrastructure programs are being implemented in the best way possible to maximise local employment, and that new projects are brought forward.
They will help to match demand for labour created by our nation building efforts with supply of labour at the local level.
In doing so, they will also work closely with local networks of job services providers.
Their job will be to add value and to act as a regional coordination point for those already engaged, and who will be engaged, in the core task of generating new jobs and training opportunities from the ground up - not just from the top down.
In other words, these Local Employment Coordinators are intended to become local jobs champions, and are intended to be experienced, senior people, capable of making things happen - in the closest possible collaboration with the local community.
Today I can also announce I have asked industry legend and great Australian Lindsay Fox to work directly with our Local Employment Coordinators across the country.
I want Lindsay to be able to advise employers in disadvantaged communities on practical ways they can keep on their workers and even take on new apprentices and employees.
Lindsay did great work in the early 1990s when he teamed up with union leader Bill Kelty and travelled the country to help create up to 60,000 jobs at a time when jobs were hard to find.
And Lindsay has asked Bill to help him in this task once again.
But beyond Lindsay and Bill, I am also today making a broader call to the nation: that is, in these high unemployment areas, for all men and women of goodwill to rally around our Local Employment Coordinators and the consultation structures they create with local government and the wider local community to boost local jobs, local training and other forms of support for local people who lose their jobs.
And the reason is: we are all in this together.
Government alone cannot solve this problem.
But with creative, entrepreneurial ingenuity from the community level up, we can do a power of good to reduce the problem.
It will also give practical expression to the great Australian tradition of extending a helping hand - and giving everyone a fair go when times are tough.
It may be something as simple as checking out how your neighbours are going, or some of the parents from school, if you hear there have been job losses in the family.
Word of mouth, or the bush telegraph, is still often the best means of connecting people who need a helping hand with those who can provide it.
I am absolutely convinced that Australians will rise to the challenge, as times of crisis bring out the best in our national character - uniting the nation rather than dividing it as we have seen from time to time in other parts of the world.
Finally, this new compact with local communities also needs to have its own bigger resource base to draw upon for the future.
That's why I am also announcing today the establishment of a $650 million Local Jobs Fund.
This temporary fund will support other local projects that will create job and training opportunities for people in communities most affected by the downturn.
It will help local councils build new and improved community infrastructure, such as playgrounds, bike paths and in the restoration of heritage buildings.
It will also be designed for start-up capital for innovative social enterprises for the not-for-profit sector.
There are also many good organisations like St Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army, the Exodus Foundation in Sydney and of course the Brotherhood of St Laurence here in Melbourne whose donor base is currently under pressure because of the downturn - precisely at the time charitable organisations are needed most.
We would like to see organisations in this situation to be able to make application for temporary support under this fund.
This Fund, together with other government programs will also provide an opportunity to transition Australia towards the new green jobs of the 21st century - part of a sustainable economy with burgeoning employment potential for the future.
The Fund includes the commitments made in February in Parliament with Senator Bob Brown of the Greens and Senator Steve Fielding to provide support for local green jobs, and to get communities working.
I would like to thank both Senators for their practical cooperation and their political commitment to supporting local community employment during the downturn.
Again I repeat my call to the nation at large - to local Chambers of Commerce, church, community, charitable organisations and the not-for-profit sector more generally, to come together locally - with one objective, which is to make a difference locally.
To make a difference with local jobs, local training, and to reduce local hardship.
It's the Australian thing to do.
Conclusion
These then are our plans for the future - for the dark and difficult times that lie before us.
Acting globally,
Acting nationally,
Acting locally, to help those who lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
And in all these things our guiding light is this:
* to reduce the impact on Australian jobs in the global recession;
* to build new jobs by building the new infrastructure we need for the 21st century and the new sustainable economy we need for the 21st century; and
* to train and retrain our workforce during this downturn to equip them and the nation with the skills we will need for the recovery.
This is our strategy for the future.
People often talk about the need for confidence.
I agree.
I also agree we can be confident in our future.
Not because some of us might say so.
Words without action count for nothing.
But words based on action count for a lot.
And what I have outlined today is a comprehensive plan of action.
More will need to be done.
But our strategy is clear.
And based on this strategy we have a rational basis for hope, a rational basis for optimism, and a rational basis for confidence in the future.
Because of the deepening of the global economic recession, there will be more bad economic data ahead, as night follows day.
For the economy.
For employment.
And therefore for the Budget.
But this government intends to stay the course.
This government intends to prosecute the strategy I have outlined, to steer Australia through the global economic storm.
And together, with communities like this community in Casey, we can build an even stronger Australia for the future.