Mr MOSSFIELD(10.18 a.m.) —I once again express my concern about the reduction in funding for labour market programs, and I want to expand on my concerns about the high unemployment that we have in this country. High unemployment, of course, is creating a feeling of insecurity in those people who are unemployed and also in people who are currently in jobs, who want to know how long they will remain in employment. This lack of confidence simply means that the Australian people do not believe that the government, which has now been in power for 15 months, has the answers to our country's economic problems.

I believe the government has wasted a golden opportunity. It won the 1996 election by a large majority, and all new governments, irrespective of their majority or their political persuasion, enjoy a honeymoon period in which the people who have elected them are prepared to give them a go. However, I believe that this government has lost the opportunity to build confidence in the community. They have failed. I believe the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) lives in the past and that he has no answers for the problems of the future. After being in power for some 15 months, the government now has a policy vacuum in the area of employment. Of course, this policy vacuum is being filled by simple solution theories, as advocated by the member for Oxley (Ms Hanson).

I refer to the headline that appeared in the Australian yesterday and which emphasised the lack of confidence that is out there. It read, `Double blow dashes job hopes'. I will quote a couple of extracts from that article. It begins:

Long-term unemployment has leapt 16 per cent over the past 12 months and the jobless rate rose to twice the national average in some blackspots, highlighting the jobs crisis facing the community and the Howard government.

A further quote says that the opposition spokesman for employment, Martin Ferguson, has said:

. . . the trend number of long-term jobseekers—the figure calculated by smoothing out the monthly fluctuations—had reached its highest level in two years. Also in trend terms, the number of long-term unemployed has risen steadily to account for 30 per cent of the total number out of work.

The article finishes up by saying:

In Newcastle and the Hunter region—where the impending closure of BHP's steelmaking operations will see around 2500 jobs lost by 1999—the jobless rate was 11-12 per cent last month, representing 27,400 people out of work.

The other point that I would like to make while speaking on this issue is that the new British government does seem to have some answers to this problem. Their answers are very similar to what the Australian Labor party is suggesting on this occasion. If I could read another extract from the Australian of 18 June:

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has said the key aims of New Labour's employment strategy are to give young and long-term unemployed people new opportunities, help single parents back to work and provide lifelong educational opportunities to help everyone to acquire new skills. Mr Brown promised 250,000 young unemployed people subsidised jobs through a tax rebate of £60 ($135) a week to employers, involving either a community and voluntary organisation program, or a new environment taskforce. Each of these options for work will offer day-release education or training leading to a qualification. Britain's long-term unemployed—those out of work for two years or more—will be subsidised into work through a £75 a week rebate for employers.

This will create real jobs with real employers, not make-believe jobs run by some well-meaning charitable organisations or community groups. These are real jobs with real employers. The other point is that the emphasis in the UK is quite clearly on training. That is not here in the current government's work for the dole program. The day-release education, as advocated in the UK example, but also the training—(Time expired)