Australian Bureau of Statistics March regional jobs figures highlight the lack of attention the Andrews Labor government is showing Latrobe Valley’s youth.
Latrobe-Gippsland’s youth unemployment rate was at an alarming 14.6 per cent at the end of March 2017, compared to a state average of 9.9 per cent.
Since Daniel Andrews was elected in December 2014, thousands of young people have been left without work. There are 3,768 fewer young people employed full-time and 2,523 fewer in part-time work.
Member for Eastern Victorian Region and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Country Schools, Melina Bath, said the Andrews Labor Government was missing in action for more than 6,000 young people in Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley.
“A young person looking at our local jobs market at the moment would be hugely disheartened – Gippsland has lost hundreds of jobs at Hazelwood Power Station and there will be 260 further jobs lost later this year at the Heyfield mill,” Ms Bath said.
“Without doubt, one of the negative consequences of the Hazelwood closure will be that local contractors will not have the work to employ new apprentices and I fear this will only get worse in the months to come”.
“These businesses are just some of our regions’ most significant employers and without them it means our young people will find it harder and harder to find work locally”.
Member for Morwell, Russell Northe, was equally frustrated. “Daniel Andrews could have stopped the closure of Hazelwood but refused to and he is now refusing to guarantee the timber supply needed to keep the Heyfield mill operating.”
“The only job Daniel Andrews is working to keep, is his own.”
