Nine-year-old Shannon Colebrook from Brentwood Park Primary School meets Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during the community forum in Narre Warren last Sunday.
By Kelly Yates
WE ARE all in this together.
That is the message Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered during a community forum in Narre Warren last Sunday.
Mr Rudd made a call for the nation to bind together as one in a campaign against unemployment.
In February the number of unemployed people rose by 47,000.
In neighbouring Dandenong, the number applying for unemployment benefits in January rose to nearly 3000, a 13 per cent rise over the previous month and in Cranbourne it was 15.5 per cent.
While the Government must take the lead, Mr Rudd said everyone had a part to play.
“We will do whatever it takes at a global, national and local level to support jobs and help those who lose their jobs to find a new one,” he said.
Two days before his visit to the City of Casey, Mr Rudd was at the G20 Summit in London.
“While sitting down with leaders from 20 of the biggest economies in the world, we all agreed that what began as a global financial crisis had already become a crisis in the global economy and was now becoming a global crisis in unemployment,” he said.
That’s why, according to Mr Rudd, the Australian Government is implementing an economic stimulus plan for the nation to reduce the impact of the global recession on Australian jobs.
Mr Rudd announced the new Jobs and Training Compact at the forum promising training, support and local initiatives to help Australians get back to work.
The initiative, which is the next step in the Government’s response to the global recession, has three parts including retrenched workers, local communities and young people.
“We can not afford today’s school leavers becoming tomorrow’s long term unemployed so the Government has announced 3650 additional pre-apprenticeship places and $145 million to support out-of-trade apprentices who have been laid off by their employers,” Mr Rudd said.
The Australian Government will be proposing that every young Australian under the age of 25 years old is guaranteed access to a school, apprenticeship, training or higher education.
Schools within the City of Casey, such as Holy Family Primary School Doveton and Cranbourne Primary School, will be eligible to receive Australian Government grants of up to $3 million each over the coming months.
Mr Rudd announced the Government will be investing $20.8 million for Local Employment Coordinators to work in seven key locations across the country, with Casey, Cardinia and Greater Dandenong selected in the South-East.
Truck tycoon Lindsay Fox will work with the Local Employment Coordinators along with local government, businesses and community organisations to ensure new national training programs are being delivered.
The coordinators will be appointed by next month.
Mr Rudd also announced a $650 million Local Jobs Fund, which is a temporary fund to support local projects, in an effort to create job and training opportunities for people in communities most affected by the downturn.
The fund will help local councils build new infrastructure such as playgrounds, bike paths and restore heritage buildings.
Mr Rudd said the impact of the global recession would be felt by families and areas such as the City of Casey.
“It’s communities like this where unemployment hits early and hard,” he said.
