Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just on a year ago, following the 12th interest rate rise and amidst a great deal of talk about the dangers of inflation, I told the House of the effects of high interest rates on housing affordability in Western Sydney and, along with other Western Sydney members, warned of the effects of mortgage stress. How things can change in the course of a year! But while home interest rate relief is beginning to have an effect on the housing market in Western Sydney, we have seen a dramatic collapse in the labour market over that same time.

Since January 2008, the adult unemployment rate in the Fairfield-Liverpool area—covered by my electorate of Fowler—has more than doubled from 5.2 per cent to 11 per cent. Youth unemployment in the same time has grown from 25 per cent to 38 per cent. In many ways the causes of those high levels of unemployment can be traced to the impact of high interest rates that were in place until late last year. The seeds of recession were well and truly sprouting in Western Sydney over a year ago, long before anyone spoke about the subprime lending crisis.

In my budget speech to this House last year, I relayed the comments of the late John Button on how our economic advisors can get it so wrong when they rely on national economic figures rather than looking at the impact of policies like high interest rates on local economies such as that of Western Sydney. So as we look at the strategy behind the government’s stimulus package, I would strongly suggest that policymakers consider the impact on areas such as Western Sydney.

The stimulus package that is being rolled out by the government can be of great assistance to the economy of Western Sydney. Programs which will boost new housing and programs which will see new social housing and the renewal of many existing units of social housing in areas like Western Sydney are most welcome, as are repairs and improvements to our schools and other improvements to our community facilities. Cash payments to pensioners, parents of school-aged children and taxpayers earning less than $100,000 a year, as part of programs which commenced late last year, will go directly to the economy of Western Sydney. The area will also benefit from grants to insulate homes and to assist with the installation of solar hot water. These are most welcome in older parts of Western Sydney; and, as well as providing an employment boost in the short term, they will provide energy savings in the years ahead. These and other local programs have the potential to provide a boost to employment in Western Sydney at a time when it is most needed.

While the economic outlook continues to be uncertain, these measures will at least provide some degree of relief for a region which has effectively been in recession for most of the past year. But as we assess projects as part of this package, it is important to consider the regional employment that flows from them. There are always plenty of grand ideas that either cannot provide an economic stimulus in the immediate future or can provide very little local employment, and should therefore be avoided. But compared with the do-nothing approach of the opposition, it is a package which will not only keep people in jobs but also provide much needed social housing, better education facilities and all-round improvements in our community.

While the opposition worries about our grandchildren, I think about the 38 per cent of teenagers looking for work today in the Fairfield-Liverpool area. I know it is jobs that their grandparents are worried about. The opposition would rather see our building trades and material suppliers lying idle while our schools are in urgent need of maintenance. They would prefer to see our social housing stock fall into disrepair rather than invest in improvements when the resources are available to bring them up to standard. The same people who wasted so many opportunities during their 12 years in office now want to waste the lives and hopes of working people in Western Sydney and across Australia.