Ms RISHWORTH (2:16 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the impact that the economic stimulus package is having on job creation?

Ms GILLARD (Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion) —I thank the member for Kingston for her question. I know that she, both in her electorate and in the state of South Australia, is very concerned to see jobs supported during the difficult days of the global recession. Of course, the world is confronting the harshest global economic conditions since World War II, and Australia is weathering this storm. We know that current economic conditions around the globe are impacting on the Australian economy and on jobs. Nevertheless, there are some encouraging signs in some recent jobs figures, some released today and some released over the past few weeks. In the ANZ job advertisement series, released today, we saw that the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet rose by 4.1 per cent. In the Oliver Job Index, reported in the media today, there was a rise of 2.5 per cent, which was the largest jump since May 2008.

The SEEK Employment Index rose by 4.8 per cent over the month of July. The Skilled Vacancies Index, containing figures collected by my department, rose by one per cent over August 2009, and the leading indicator of employment has risen for the second consecutive month in August, after falling for 18 consecutive months. Notwithstanding these figures, later this week we will see the next figures in the ABS monthly series on unemployment and, as the government forecast predicts, we do anticipate that unemployment will continue to rise. We know that this is occurring in circumstances where the IMF is still forecasting the global economy to contract by 1.4 per cent this year, and we know that unemployment in the US has hit 9.7 per cent. What this means of course is that, as the G20 finance ministers reflected on the weekend, as representatives of the world’s leading economies, we are not yet out of the woods. Business investment remains weak in Australia, our export income has been cut and of course we have to engage in economic stimulus which is timely and targeted and that is exactly what the government is doing—

Opposition members interjecting—

Ms GILLARD —notwithstanding the jeering of those opposite, who care so little about the jobs of their fellow Australians. This economic stimulus will support over 200,000 jobs. This economic stimulus is not only supporting jobs today whilst we build the infrastructure that we need for tomorrow; it is supporting training efforts today. In that regard I would direct members’ attention to the fact that in the Building the Education Revolution program there is a requirement that at least 10 per cent of the total contract hours should be undertaken by apprentices, trainees and those seeking to upskill. I would have thought that that would have been endorsed as good news by anyone who cares about the next generation of skilled tradespeople. This is against a background where the National Centre for Vocational Education Research has told us, in its recent statistics, that the number of Australians who started a trade apprenticeship fell in the March quarter, by 22 per cent, compared to the same time last year. These figures prove that we are not out of the woods, that we need to support employment in our economy and that we need to support training efforts in our economy. Our economic stimulus package is doing just that, our Building the Education Revolution package is doing just that and we will continue to deliver them, notwithstanding the jeering and criticism of those opposite, who care so little about the jobs of Australians.