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Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Page: 1120

Employment

Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney) (14:45): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her statement on ABC AM this morning that the financial services sector 'will employ more Australians'. I refer the Prime Minister to the almost 2,000 jobs lost at ANZ, Westpac, Macquarie, Suncorp and a number of other financial institutions. Prime Minister, do these job losses reflect an industry that will employ more Australians or are these job losses simply, in your words, 'growing pains'?

Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:46): To the shadow Treasurer I say yet again: here we have the opposition using the loss of workers' jobs as a political play thing. The only job in this country they are interested in is the office of Prime Minister. That is all the Leader of the Opposition cares about. All that they care about on the front bench of the opposition is getting themselves a pay rise by moving over onto the government benches. They exhibit no concern for the jobs of working Australians. For them, working Australians are a convenient prop for a media interview; they are nothing else. Contempt for working Australians is bred deep into their bones, and it came out when they engaged in Work Choices.

I say to the shadow Treasurer—and it is what he of all people should understand—that we are seeing changes in our economy and we are seeing changes in our banks. Let me make it very clear how I feel about the changes that have been announced by the ANZ. I think the combination of putting up your interest rates, then announcing job losses and then seeking to blame both of those decisions on someone else is reprehensible. That is what I feel about it, and I am very happy to state that very clearly in here. So, in relation to these job losses, of course I am very worried about those Australians and the pressures on them.

I also say to the shadow Treasurer, 'Let's recognise the opportunities that come with change in our region.' Our region is growing in economic power. Its middle class is growing—and we see literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people in our region joining the middle classes—and as the middle classes grow they will demand services just as we demand services. Amongst the services they will demand will be cutting-edge financial services, and Australia can play a major role in providing them. That is an opportunity. That is why I am optimistic about the future of financial services. It requires us to understand our economy, our region, and to stop talking the simplistic protest nonsense that the opposition walks in here with every day.