Mr GUNNER - 2008-09-10
Businesses in the Territory are reporting that skills shortages are holding back their ability to grow and tender for new works. How will this government’s election commitment to establish a new Workforce Growth Unit help to address these shortages?
Our government is supporting business and we have done everything possible to attract workers to the Territory. In fact, members of my department went to Adelaide in March 2008 following the announcement of the closure of Mitsubishi Motors, and promoted the Territory as a place to find a job. We had a number of Mitsubishi workers come to the Territory. We followed that with further trips to Newcastle and Adelaide in 2008. We had 270 workers attend the job expo in Newcastle, and 400 attended in Adelaide. I am advised that 255 businesses in the Territory have found workers from there.
Also, today, my departmental people are in Melbourne to promote the Territory as a place to work following the announcement by Ford Australia about forthcoming redundancies at Geelong and Broadmeadows.
Our target is to train Territorians. Our target is to employ Australians. However, it is quite difficult and we have gone beyond Australia trying to attract workers. We now have people in Cape Town, South Africa, where approximately 3000 people attended our job expo. We are following up with trips to Cape Town, where we expect 8000 registrations, and then to Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Germany. I am pleased to say that I received news from South Africa that we have had a significant number of highly-qualified people, such as nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, and radiographers, also electricians and motor and diesel mechanics, who have registered with our kiosk. They have provided their CVs which have been scanned and are stored in the department’s webpage to be provided to businesses in the Northern Territory. There is a significant exodus of people trying to get out of South Africa, and they believe they can get a job in the Territory. Some of the comments I have heard from people coming to the Territory is that they like the Territory because the climate is the same as in Africa, with the same language and the same culture - I am very pleased about that.
We are establishing a new unit in my department, the Workforce Growth Unit. That unit will have a budget of $350 000 a year and will have three positions – one in Darwin, one in Katherine, and one in Alice Springs. The focus of this unit is a flying squad, flying around Australia to places where we know there are going to be forthcoming redundancies, to promote the Territory as a place to work. We had success in the past, and we will promote the Territory more to try to attract more workers to the Territory.
I recall well the time when there were plenty of vacancies in the Territory. Unfortunately, there were not many jobs then. It was 2001, just at the end of the reign of the CLP.
Our government is supporting business and we have done everything possible to attract workers to the Territory. In fact, members of my department went to Adelaide in March 2008 following the announcement of the closure of Mitsubishi Motors, and promoted the Territory as a place to find a job. We had a number of Mitsubishi workers come to the Territory. We followed that with further trips to Newcastle and Adelaide in 2008. We had 270 workers attend the job expo in Newcastle, and 400 attended in Adelaide. I am advised that 255 businesses in the Territory have found workers from there.
Also, today, my departmental people are in Melbourne to promote the Territory as a place to work following the announcement by Ford Australia about forthcoming redundancies at Geelong and Broadmeadows.
Our target is to train Territorians. Our target is to employ Australians. However, it is quite difficult and we have gone beyond Australia trying to attract workers. We now have people in Cape Town, South Africa, where approximately 3000 people attended our job expo. We are following up with trips to Cape Town, where we expect 8000 registrations, and then to Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Germany. I am pleased to say that I received news from South Africa that we have had a significant number of highly-qualified people, such as nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, and radiographers, also electricians and motor and diesel mechanics, who have registered with our kiosk. They have provided their CVs which have been scanned and are stored in the department’s webpage to be provided to businesses in the Northern Territory. There is a significant exodus of people trying to get out of South Africa, and they believe they can get a job in the Territory. Some of the comments I have heard from people coming to the Territory is that they like the Territory because the climate is the same as in Africa, with the same language and the same culture - I am very pleased about that.
We are establishing a new unit in my department, the Workforce Growth Unit. That unit will have a budget of $350 000 a year and will have three positions – one in Darwin, one in Katherine, and one in Alice Springs. The focus of this unit is a flying squad, flying around Australia to places where we know there are going to be forthcoming redundancies, to promote the Territory as a place to work. We had success in the past, and we will promote the Territory more to try to attract more workers to the Territory.
I recall well the time when there were plenty of vacancies in the Territory. Unfortunately, there were not many jobs then. It was 2001, just at the end of the reign of the CLP.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016