Mr ROSS CAMERON (4:13 PM) —The previous speaker, the member for Greenway, Mr Mossfield, has rightly brought to the attention of the House a concern which I think all members in this place share—that is, the situation of those older Australians who have in some cases fallen through the net and in their forties, fifties or sixties find themselves retrenched and having to seek employment again. There is no doubt that those in that older age group are faced with some barriers to employment which are not present in the same way for younger job seekers. It is the duty of each of us in this place to do what we can to try and ensure that their re-entry to the work force is speedier and more efficient and that more opportunities exist for that to take place.

The member has addressed the motion in the context of the International Year of Older Persons. I take the opportunity to congratulate the minister, Mrs Bishop, for her outstanding leadership in the area of celebrating this significant milestone and bringing it to the attention of the Australian people and the expenditure by this government of almost $11 million to ensure that the International Year of Older Persons results in lasting and tangible benefits for older people. Particularly, I acknowledge the minister's launch in my electorate at the Parramatta Leagues Club of a new initiative with the Australian Bankers Association to help older Australians understand and feel comfortable with the technology now available to access banking and financial services. That is an important step forward and I am very pleased to see that being launched in my electorate of Parramatta.

We come to the question of what we do for older Australians whose job security is perhaps less today than it was a generation ago. There is no doubt that, with the speed of change in our economy, the move from a traditional, industrial based economy to a services, tertiary based economy, the revolution in information and the speed of change, there have been those who have fallen through the cracks. One day in my electorate this was vividly brought to my attention. On the one hand, I read in the newspaper that Telstra had signed a $900,000 contract with an 18-year-old schoolboy from Sydney who had developed a new software package called Launchpad, which is now available on Telstra's Big Pond home page on the Internet. They had paid almost a million dollars to that 18-year-old schoolboy for his efforts.

Then that afternoon I had a call from one of my constituents who had worked for Telstra for over 20 years, had joined Telstra straight out of school and at the age of 40 was looking at the possibility of retrenchment. This particular gentleman's father likewise had joined what was then the Postmaster-General's office out of school and had worked with the PMG, then Telecom and now Telstra for 40 years. His son had, I suppose, the rational expectation that he likewise could expect lifetime employment in that organisation, only to find at the age of 40 that he was seriously having to look at a complete change of direction and change of vocation and that his expectation of lifetime employment was almost certainly going to be defeated.

In my maiden speech in this place I said that I wanted us to ensure we were educating young Australians for the industries that are emerging rather than those which are passing away. How do we address what is clearly a serious social and economic problem? No body ought to trivialise the significance of the problem which the honourable member has raised. The answer is not to somehow hope to stand like King Canute on the point and urge the tide to go out. The wave of change is upon us. It is going to continue to come at a faster and faster pace. There is really nothing we can do, as a small island nation, to stop that international wave of technology and change.

I would not want to change that—it creates enormous opportunities. But we have to create an economy which is growing sufficiently quickly, is lean and competitive and offers opportunities for anyone in the job market. My colleague the member for Riverina is going to talk about the specific initiatives this government has taken in the employment services market. But the macro management of an economy which actually creates jobs is the greatest hope for every job seeker. In that regard the Australian people have been tremendously well served by this government. What it means is that, for an older person who perhaps had not expected to lose their job, there are opportunities to get back into the work force.