Unemployment up

By Bridget Cook
SOUTH Eastern Metropolitan MP Gordon Rich-Phillips accused the State Government of ignoring Berwick’s growing unemployment in its rush to claim credit for job creation.
But the spokesperson for Treasurer John Lenders said the attack was a pathetic, cynical attempt to talk down the performance of the Berwick economy during the Global Financial Crisis.
The latest unemployment figures, released by the Federal Government, show that the number of unemployed job seekers in Berwick has risen from 1466 in December 2008 to 2135 in December 2009.
Mr Rich-Phillips said while Mr Lenders claimed credit for creating 100,000 jobs in Victoria since last May’s budget, few had been created in Berwick, and unemployment was rising.
“Mr Brumby’s treasurer has the arrogance to claim that the Labor Government is inspiring ‘confidence and jobs growth’ at a time when the number of unemployed job seekers in Berwick is rising far quicker than the number of new jobs,” he said. “In return for voting for a Labor MP during the 2006 election Berwick residents have received a dose of disregard and a pinch of neglect.”
However the spokesperson said official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show that 1248 jobs have been created in Berwick from December 2008 to December 2009.
The spokesperson for Mr Lenders said Berwick’s unemployment rate was currently 4.3 per cent which is a whole percentage point lower than the Australian average.
“Instead of embarrassing himself and talking down Berwick’s economy he should put his thinking cap on and come up with just one policy to create local jobs and fight off the ongoing Global Financial Crisis,” the spokesperson said.