Brumby defends surge in jobless


JOHN Brumby has defended his record on jobs, saying the state government had a ''very good story to tell'' despite unemployment in Broadmeadows surging from 10.7 per cent to 15.9 per cent in just a year.

Mr Brumby said Victoria had created more jobs than other states in the past year and had also made big investments in his own electorate of Broadmeadows.

But opposition manufacturing spokesman Ryan Smith said Mr Brumby's industry policies were failing. He pointed to the ''dramatically'' higher unemployment rate in Broadmeadows and rising joblessness in other areas.


Manufacturing, which was until early 2009 Victoria's biggest employer, has shrunk by nearly 40,000 jobs since the financial crisis, as car makers shed jobs and firms such as Pacific Brands close factories.

Mr Smith cited federal government figures that showed rising unemployment in the two years to June 2010 in manufacturing areas including Ballarat, Corio and Geelong, Cranbourne, around Waverley, and Broadmeadows.

''Manufacturing policy is not working because it's not providing any break at all to the losses happening in his [Mr Brumby's] own electorate, which is a manufacturing area. Things are getting worse.''

Mr Smith said the opposition would release a manufacturing policy during the election campaign and said the government's statement released in 2008 was full of ''motherhood statements''.

Mr Brumby said Broadmeadows was a difficult area for jobs as it had a high refugee population that often had little English and low work skills. He said Victoria's record on job creation was ''clearly the best in Australia''.

In September, Victoria's unemployment rate of 5.4 per cent was above the national rate of 5.1 per cent.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union federal vehicle secretary Ian Jones said Australia's negotiations with China, Japan and Korea over a trade agreement needed to consider carefully the impact on car industry jobs. He said the Thailand free trade agreement allowed the local car industry to be ''plundered'' as it allowed the Thai government to put in place non-trade barriers after it was signed.

■ Premier Brumby has predicted the retention rate of child protection workers will improve. This follows the release of damning figures showing a ''churn'' rate of almost 25 per cent among front-line staff.

The Premier said there were 84 more staff in the child protection program this year.

''It's not surprising there is a level of burnout and a level of churn,'' Mr Brumby said. ''People just have to understand it is an extraordinarily difficult area to work.''

Department of Human Services figures, revealed by The Age, show 231 of just over 1000 child protection workers resigned or had their contracts terminated last year.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said Community Services Minister Lisa Neville should have been sacked long ago.