Labor says the private sector is creating jobs. The numbers tell a different story.
While government-funded employment grows, private businesses are being crushed by rising costs, red tape and net zero policies.
Australians need lower power prices, stronger wages and an economy that rewards productive enterprise, not government dependence.
Labor’s lies aren’t going to pay the bills.
Transcript
I thank Senator Collins for this motion, which One Nation supports. Labor elder Bill Kelty has warned that Australians cannot pay their bills with the Treasurer’s spin. Last week, the Treasurer indulged in spin yet again when he said that six out of seven jobs created during the Albanese government were in the private sector. No, they were not. Seventy per cent of the jobs created under Treasurer Chalmers are in the care economy, which is government funded, not the private sector. This did not stop the Minister for Finance, though, repeating the line yesterday in question time. Truth be damned with you lot!
The Labor government is running up deficits to directly fund jobs to keep the economy from going into a recession. We are already in a per capita recession! Net zero madness and insane regulations are destroying huge numbers of private sector jobs. Mosaic Brands lost 950 jobs; Fortescue, 700 jobs; and Telstra, another 650 jobs. The Whyalla steelworks lost 600 jobs yesterday, although Minister Bowen’s $1.9 billion handout of taxpayer money to fund a green steel arc furnace powered using weather-dependent solar and wind is still trying. Taxpayers can kiss that money goodbye. The Tomago smelter stood to lose 1,000 jobs until the government bailed them out with $2.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to secure heavily subsidised, expensive power in the Hunter. It’s a shame local residents didn’t get the same deal. They’re really struggling from high electricity prices and high petrol prices, after the Labor government reversed the fuel excise cut and put fuel up 32c a litre yesterday.
Under Treasurer Chalmers, Australian wages have gone backwards by five per cent. Headline inflation is at three per cent and rising, outpacing wage rises, forcing mortgage rates up and trapping many people who signed up for the Treasurer’s five per cent deposit scheme in negative equity. ‘Spin’ doesn’t come close to expressing the anger everyday Australians are feeling towards the Albanese government.
Australian retail and manufacturing are in the grip of a severe crisis, marked by a recent wave of business collapses, including Cue, Veronika Maine, Lincraft and Barbeques Galore. There has also been a sharp rise in retrenchments – over 257,000 in the 12 months prior to February 2026.
Unemployment has risen to 4.5%, record numbers of businesses are facing insolvency, and hundreds of thousands of Australians are either unemployed or underemployed and are struggling financially.
Planned immigration is expected to increase job competition and financial strain, and many employed citizens are now relying on government assistance, creating a population dependent on the state.
Government bailouts for manufacturing, such as the Tomago smelter and the former car industry, are temporary measures that ultimately precede the end of local production.
We don’t need cheap labour to manufacture in Australia. What is needed is capital, proximity to raw materials – and cheap energy that is not reliable on the weather.
We have $4.5 trillion sitting in superannuation funds looking for safe, profitable investments. We ship our iron ore and coal to China and India, only to buy the finished steel back because unreliable energy policies have crippled our heavy industry. The closure of our steel mills and smelters means hundreds of Australian jobs lost – all caused by successive governments choosing ideology over enterprise.
American industry is moving manufacturing back home by securing cheap power. If they can do it, so can we.
Transcript
I thank Senator Blyth for this matter of urgency, which One Nation supports. Last night I read a list of large job losses from the last few months here in Australia. Today there’s one more to add. The retailer Cue, or Veronika Maine, has now gone into receivership. They may be saved, and I hope for the sake of their 69 stores and hundreds of people that they are. Other retailers in administration or liquidation recently include Betts, Lincraft, Barbeques Galore, Aussie Disposals, Stateside Sports, AH Beard, Harold’s and regional retailer Proud Poppy. These are names familiar to all Australians. I’ve shopped at them. This is personal. These are people in their communities that are now out of work.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the 12 months prior to February 2026, nationwide retrenchments rose to 257,900 people. That is more than a quarter of a million people—Australians who no longer have a job, families without a breadwinner. Every community is suffering. Every retailer is feeling it. Unemployment has risen under the Albanese government from 3.4 per cent to 4.5 per cent. This follows on from the 14,152 business insolvencies last financial year—the second highest on record after the all-time high of 14,700 recorded under Treasurer Chalmers the year before. Australians having a go to provide for themselves and people we know in our communities keeping our local shops in business? No longer. There are 691,500 Australians without a job and looking for one.
Another million Australians on top of that are working and not getting all the hours they need to keep their heads above water. Imagine how hard that will be with another one million planned new arrivals to compete with thanks to Labor’s mass immigration program. Those still with jobs are increasingly classified as the working poor, dependent on government handouts to survive, which is exactly how totalitarian governments throughout time have wanted their citizens: desperate, broke and totally reliant on government. The bailout offered to keep Tomago aluminium smelter in business will, in my experience, only be temporary. Labor and the Liberals did the same thing with the Australian car industry. Remember when we made cars? Remember all those union jobs? Subsidies were used to keep the car industry alive long enough to transition from local manufacturing to a fully imported supply chain. Then the subsidies ended. They were pulled.
With modern, computerised, AI driven automated assembly lines, cost-efficient manufacturing is possible here in Australia and has been for years. Modern manufacturing does not need cheap labour. It needs proximity to raw materials, which we have, and capital to build our facilities. We have $4.5 trillion in capital stored in superannuation funds looking for profitable, safe investments. It needs a regulatory environment to free up that investment. A One Nation government will deliver that.
American industry has worked all this out. In the last few years, Apple, GE, Samsung, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Intel and Micron have all moved manufacturing back to the United States. Why? Because they’re on a track back to cheap power. If they can do it, so can we. Of course, this does need steel, and this Labor government just allowed our steel mill in Whyalla to close, with 600 jobs lost. That’s 600 jobs gone. That’s another heavy industry facility where subsidies were used as a bridge to allow the plant to be hollowed out and then replaced with imports. The LIBERTY Bell Bay manganese smelter closed in July—another 250 jobs gone. Instead of encouraging investment in manufacturing and heavy industry to bring jobs home, this government is growing the Chinese economy. When did unions stop worrying about Australian workers and start cheering on the Chinese Communist Party? Or was the $15 billion ripped out of Victoria’s Big Build a pay-off for silence? Who knows?
India is emerging as a major source of steel, using iron ore and coal. Where do they get theirs? Oh, that’s right! They get their iron ore and coal from Australia, of course. Australian workers are wondering how it could be possible to ship iron ore from Western Australia and coal from New South Wales and Queensland to China and India, make the steel using automated production and then ship it back here. I’ll tell you. It’s a one-word answer—energy. It turns out weather-dependent-power windmills can’t sustain manufacturing and heavy industry and can’t sustain an economy. This government’s insistence on advancing ideology over enterprise is costing everyday Australians their jobs, their homes, their marriages, their families and their dignity. The next election can’t come soon enough.
Hi, one nation has voted to approve the government’s JobMaker scheme. You know, at first with JobMaker we had concerns and raised these openly in the Senate as we do. As senators, it’s our job to get the facts straight. So Pauline met with the treasurer and discussed the concerns we received from people about JobMaker.
The treasurer to his credit provided solid data and we have the courage and integrity to change our view and I want to tell you why. Firstly, it became clear that our youth have been hit particularly hard in terms of access to jobs. After the COVID-19 workplace restrictions started, the unemployment rate for 16 to 35-year-olds is 10.5%, 10.5. And for over 35, it’s 4%.
When we learned that it disturbed us and I’m sure it’ll trouble all Australians because we need our youth in jobs as soon as possible. They’re our future. And they’re also our future taxpayers for decades to come. And it costs our community and economy dearly when they disengage and languish at such a critical time in their lives.
You know travelling around Queensland, I’ve had many conversations with local business leaders and citizens who highlight that when our young people are not employed trouble follows, drugs, crime. Secondly, our concern was that jobmaker will allow a company to sack an older worker and replace them with a subsidised younger worker on JobMaker.
The treasurer showed us, this is not the case. The government has addressed this by ensuring an employer can only get JobMaker if the number of employees goes up. So there is simply no point in sacking an older employee to put on a younger worker, as this will not lead to any increase in the number of employees.
JobMaker would not be available and therefore would not motivate or drive this behaviour. Plus, there are serious penalties for such behaviour built in to the legislation. Finally, there were concerns that workers are worried that they will have their hours cut back so that a new worker can come in under JobMaker.
The protection put in place by the government is the requirement that states the number of hours must go up. It’s clear that JobMaker is only available to a business that can demonstrate extra hours being worked. There’s no point in cutting back hours of an existing employee to give to a new employee because JobMaker would not be available.
Plus there are serious penalties for such behaviour. Now we accept and we know that some employers don’t do the right thing. And that’s why there are financial penalties for employers who do the wrong thing.
And if a person feels they have been fired or had their hours cut back unfairly because of JobMaker, then that person can ring the tax department hotline anonymously to report the situation and have it investigated. Any employee is also free to report an employment matter to the fair work ombudsman for either a permanent reduction in hours or a dismissal.
Those protections have always existed for every Australian worker and one nation will ensure they always exist. One nation are for workers of all ages and we believe JobMaker will tackle the task of job recovery at its most critical point for our future economic prosperity.
Now I’m sure all people young and old care, really care and want to ensure the young are supported in this challenging period with very high unemployment for the young. All Australians care about our country’s future.
On Tuesday we supported 2 of 11 amendments to the JobMaker scheme but on receiving new information on Wednesday afternoon we changed our position. We listen and when we get new data we have the courage and integrity to review our position.
There was concern that employers would put off older workers and only employ younger workers to receive the JobMaker scheme.We now know this is not the case. The legislation only offers JobMaker for businesses who increase their payroll & head count. Sacking an elderly employee & hiring an under 35 wouldn’t qualify for a subsidy.
The Treasurer advised Pauline that unemployment in people 35 years of age or younger is 10.4%. In people older than 35 is 4%.There is a crisis for those in our community under 35. A job can make all the difference. When Covid restrictions came in unemployment increased 100%. And unemployment among younger people increased 150%.
Transcript
Hi, we just had a bit of a kerfuffle in the Senate about the job makers scheme. It’s to subsidise hiring of two groups of people. Those from 16 to 29 years of age, and those from 30 to 35 years of age. Yesterday, I spoke strongly opposed to it. And we then supported two amendments, two of 11 amendments. We rejected nine of Labor greens amendments, rejected nine, we supported two.
One was on reporting and the other one was on duplication. Here’s some new data. And when we get new data, we look at it, because we use these things, this thing, and our heart, and we assess the data honestly, and we don’t care what people think just because we changed our mind. We have the courage and the integrity to change our mind.
So here’s some of the data we got from the treasurer through Pauline today, she went in to see the treasurer, and we were told that the unemployment rate for those under 35 years of age is 10.4%. The unemployment rate for those over 35 years of age is just 4%. So that means the young have been really hammered. We’ve got to get those people back to work.
Another set of figures, the increase in unemployment, across all of Australia, due to the COVID restrictions, was 100%. The increase in unemployment due to the COVID restrictions on people under 35 years of age was 150%. So it’s really savaged the young. And we have to help these people back to work. Now, the treasurer gave us this data, and as I said, that caused us to rethink.
He also reassured us about the two amendments that we had previously supported. One was about reporting, and he assured us that the ATO will do that. And we also were reassured that the data will be reported to the COVID inquiry, the COVID committee. The second amendment was about duplication. We’ve been reassured on that too. The treasurer gave us the facts.
We have the courage and the integrity to change our position. Sadly, the Labor party and the greens are pitting old versus young. We know that that’s crap. That’s complete rubbish, because Australians care. And Australians who see those figures will do exactly what we’ve done. They’ll try and help the young and everyone. We know that all Australians care and will want this fixed.
And this programme is necessary to get the young back to work quickly. There are other programmes for other groups, and they’re at work already and have been at work in some cases for months. So that’s why we changed our position, because we’re honest and straight. No deal done, simply facts. Labor and the greens can’t understand that, because everything they do has to be grubby.
