Geelong is stuck in an “unemployment crisis” despite new figures showing employment grown in regional Victoria, according to a coalition MP.
Member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur questioned the State Government’s success in tackling Geelong’s “poor” unemployment rate after the government trumpeted a record low for regional Victoria.
“It is especially curious that this Labor-controlled area of Geelong has higher unemployment when you would have thought jobs would be their first priority,” she said yesterday.
“It is the responsibility of local members of parliament to ensure that every effort is made to get people into work.”
Mrs McArthur’s comments followed Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reporting that regional Victoria’s June quarter unemployment rate was an all-time low 3.8 per cent.
The figure was the lowest in state and national history, the State Government said.
But Geelong’s unemployment rate was 6.1 per cent in June, up .2 per cent on the same time last year.
The rate remained higher than the state average despite public-sector employment increasing in Geelong over the past year, including the arrival of 700 WorkSafe jobs.
Mrs McArthur said the government’s decision to relocate workers and investment from Melbourne “clearly hasn’t helped the local Geelong employment pool”.
“Premier Andrews continually boasts about the investment in government infrastructure expenditure and government agencies have been relocated to Geelong, so how is it that, with all this alleged investment, the Geelong unemployed have missed out?”
The government cited initiatives such as its $2.6 billion Delivering for Regional and Rural Victoria Program for “boosting jobs”.
“Since the Labor Government was first elected in November 2014, Victoria’s regional unemployment rate has fallen from 6.6 per cent to 3.8 per cent, the largest decrease among the states,” the government said.
“More than 60,000 people have found jobs in regional Victoria since then.”
Acting Treasurer Robin Scott said investing in regional Victoria was “a top priority for this government to grow jobs and reduce unemployment”.
“We’ll continue our historic investment in Victoria’s skills sector and help businesses in every corner of the state grow, reach new markets and create local jobs,” he said.
ABS data earlier this year revealed that Corio and Norlane had a state-worst unemployment rate of 21.6 per cent, with one in five jobless.
Geelong’s unemployment rate is higher than other regional Victorian cities including Shepparton, at 4.3 per cent, Ballarat and Latrobe, both 4 per cent, Warrnambool., 3.4, and Bendigo, 3.3.
