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small business | December 18, 2015

More full-time job losses across north-west Victoria

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday show 13,812 full-time jobs have been lost in north-west Victoria since Daniel Andrews came to office.

The number of people in full-time jobs in the North-West Region has fallen from 51,372 in December 2014 to 37,560 in November 2015.

The local unemployment rate has risen by 2.2 per cent since December 2014 to reach 7.4 per cent in November 2015.

Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy said before the election Daniel Andrews promised to create 100,000 full-time jobs within two years as part of his Back to Work scheme. 

“Since the Andrews Labor Government came to office all we have seen are sharp falls in full-time employment in our region,” Ms Kealy said.

“The government’s botched $100 million Back to Work scheme has created just 164 jobs across the state.

“At a time when we need to be creating job opportunities in the north-west, Daniel Andrews is all talk and no action,” she said.

The recent job losses come on the back of the Andrew’s Labor Government allocating regional Victoria a mere 2.9% of the major infrastructure budget, slashing the Regional Development budget by 24% and failure to support any major projects in country Victoria.

“The job losses in our region can be directly linked to Labor’s drastic cuts to spending in rural Victoria. It’s vital Lowan receives its fair share of funding for local infrastructure projects,” Ms Kealy said.

Last month the State Government announced the fast-tracking of infrastructure projects in drought-affected areas, but not one project from Lowan was included in the announcement.

“Extensive full-time job losses across north-west Victoria demonstrates the harsh impact of Labors failure to invest in our local area,” Ms Kealy said.