“A Plan For Australian Jobs” – Gillard Launches Industry And Innovation Statement

Feb 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

The federal government has announced a $1 billion plan to promote jobs and productivity.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, appeared today at the Boeing factory in Melbourne with the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Greg Combet, to launch the plan.

Gillard

The plan provides for measures to assist Australian companies to win more local work, increase exports and win new business overseas, and support the growth of small to medium Australian businesses.

  • Download a summary of the Industry and Innovation Statement (PDF)
  • Download the complete Industry and Innovation Statement (PDF)
  • Listen to Gillard and Combet (9m)

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  • Watch the government video accompanying the Statement:
  • Watch Channel 10 News report:
  • Watch Channel 7 News report:

Statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Plan at a glance

Australians expect and deserve well-paid jobs that support their families and look after our communities.

That is why the Australian Government is investing $1 billion to keep Australian jobs safe.

We are introducing changes to help Australian companies that are doing it tough.

As well as giving a boost to companies with high-growth potential.

We want to see local Australian companies get a fair go. That’s why we are also making changes to encourage new businesses in new industries to create new opportunities and new jobs.

We want to make sure that our kids and our kids’ kids have high-skilled, well-paying jobs now and in the future. Our focus is squarely on jobs and growth.

Our economy thrives when we have a strong workforce and profitable innovative businesses.

A Plan for Australian Jobs is a roadmap for creating jobs and lifting productivity.

It is a plan to put Australian businesses and industries on a firmer footing so they are able to take up opportunities to compete globally.

The Australian Government acted quickly to keep the economy strong during the Global Financial Crisis.

While the rest of the world is still recovering, Australia’s economy has continued to grow.

But we can’t stand still. We need to create the jobs of the future.

The strong Australian dollar and an increase in global competitors are hurting many Australian businesses and threatening jobs.

And the world is changing. Economies in Asia, such as China, are growing quickly. Their citizens want high-quality goods and services, which Australian companies can provide.

Innovation is central to the success of our industries and our capacity to respond to the needs of markets in Australia and overseas.

Our vision is for Australia’s innovation system to be ranked in the top 10 globally. This is an ambitious goal, but we have the right framework to achieve it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, Audio2013, Economy, Gillard, Industry-Innovation, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

Bodyline, The Economy And A Republic: Wayne Swan Joins The Dots

Jan 25, 2013 Leave a Comment

The Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has released an Australia Day article that draws a series of connections between the 1930s Bodyline cricket series, the contemporary economy and a future republic.

SwanSwan remembers Bodyline as typifying Australian resistance to English imperial superiority. He sees Australia defending “fair play” and playing “within both the letter and the spirit of the rules”. Australia’s code, says Swan, is “not a gentleman’s code” but “a democratic code”.

Linking Bodyline with the 1930s Depression, Swan says “Australians didn’t cause that Depression and to a very great extent we were powerless to tackle it..because we lacked full economic sovereignty”.

Swan says Bodyline and the Great Depression “helped awaken a democratic and egalitarian assertion of Australian national sovereignty that still serves us well on Australia Day 2013.”

Despite the fact that the Rudd and Gillard governments have done nothing over the past five years to promote constitutional change, Swan says reflection on Bodyline and the Depression “will eventually” have the legacy of “hastening the approach of an Australian republic”.

Swan’s argument is similar in style to his musings last year on Bruce Springsteen’s opposition to economic privilege. In his John Button Oration, Swan sought to emphasise democratic and egalitarian values at the heart of the Labor government’s value system.

Swan’s article today is an attempt to add to the over-arching story the government has been developing as the federal election draws near.

Text of an article released by the Treasurer, Wayne Swan.

Forged in Fair Play – 80 Years on From Bodyline

It has been another eventful Australian summer, marked by bushfires that have once again tested some of our nation’s most important values: our capacity to stick together in a crisis, help out those who need help, display coolness, competence and courage under pressure.

In a time of transition, with our nation on the cusp of the Asian Century, our values are the most treasured commodities we possess, ones which will always endure. So as we celebrate this Australia Day, it is worth reflecting on the origins and nature of Australia’s national values.

There’s no one source of our national character. It comes from our indigenous heritage, from the struggles of the convicts and early settlers, the Federation period with its conflicts and mateship, and of course our nation’s experiences on the battlefields of war. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, A.L.P., Australia, Economy, Gillard, Republic, Sport Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Swan Continues Attacks On Campbell Newman Cuts

Jan 24, 2013 Leave a Comment

For the second day running, Treasurer Wayne Swan has focussed on Queensland government budget cuts and their effect on unemployment and the national economy.

Swan

At a Brisbane media conference, Swan quoted from Queensland Budget papers which itemised $3 billion worth of cuts to health funding and 2,754 full-time job losses.

  • Listen to Swan’s media conference – transcript below (14m)

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  • Listen to Swan’s media conference yesterday on the CPI figures (19m)

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Transcript of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s Brisbane media conference.

TREASURER:

I wanted to say a few things about the World Economic Outlook which has been released by the IMF overnight. They have expressed cautious optimism about future growth in the global economy and certainly cautious optimism is justified if policy makers get the big decisions right over the next 12 months. And in particular, policy makers in the United States when it comes to the conclusion of the negotiations surrounding the debt cap there and the other issues associated with the fiscal cliff. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio2013, Economy, Gillard, Health, QLD Tagged With: , , , ,

Unemployment Rate Increases 0.1% To 5.4%

Jan 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

Australia’s unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 5.4% in December.

There was a small fall in full-time employment, offset by increased part-time employment. The participation rate was steady at 65.1%.

Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey both commented on the figures.

Ellis

  • Listen to Kate Ellis comment on the figures (14m)

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Hockey

  • Listen to Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey (7m)

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Text of media release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 5.4 per cent in December, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Audio2013, Economy, Gillard, Liberal Party Tagged With: , ,

Gillard And Swan Look To The Election

Jan 13, 2013 Leave a Comment

In statements published today, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan have sought to frame the political debate in this election year.

GillardAs Gillard overtakes Kevin Rudd’s 935 days as prime minister, she has written a piece for the Sunday Telegraph in which she talks about her family’s background in a Welsh mining village and her consequent attitude to education, jobs and fairness. Gillard portrays herself as a prime minister “getting the big things done” to create opportunity.

Gillard depicts her government as one “with security as our foundation stone”. She presents the National Disability Insurance Scheme as the modern complement to Medicare, and the National Broadband Network as essential to Australia’s future economic growth. Most of all, she stresses the importance of education: “We have to be smarter.”

The statement says “we’ll never again see a world without global warming”, but makes no mention of the carbon tax or the eventual emissions trading scheme.

Like Gillard, Swan talks of the nation’s spirit of optimism and of “reforms to secure our future”. In his weekly Economic Note, the Treasurer stresses that Australia is in “the box seat” to take advantage of the global economy as it tilts toward Asia.

Swan talks up “hard fought reforms like pricing carbon, building the NBN, or huge reforms in health, aged care, mental health, taking a million taxpayers out of the system by tripling the tax-free threshold, paid parental leave, the Schoolkids Bonus or the biggest boost to the pension this country has ever seen.”

Text of statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, as published in The Sunday Telegraph.

The 28th of December would have been my parents’ 55th wedding anniversary.

No matter what else is happening, you can never fill the gap left by the loss of a loved one.

So I was in a reflective mood this Christmas and I took that feeling with me to Sydney as I welcomed the New Year. There were fireworks and bubbly all around me but I was concentrating on memories of the past and plans for the future.

Whether you remember the past as an easier, happier time or a harder, lonelier time depends on your own circumstances and journey through life.

But however you remember it, there is no going back there. You can’t change it or relive it. But you can plan for and shape the future.

What’s true for individuals, is true for our nation and our world. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Federal Election, A.L.P., Economy, Education, Gillard Tagged With: , ,
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