A NEW report reveals New England’s unemployment has rocketed since the last federal election, with one of the fastest growing rates in the nation over the past three years.
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Unemployment in the electorate rose 2.7 per cent (2094 people) since September 2013, against the national average of just 0.1 per cent, making it the eighth-highest increase of any electorate.
The report from the Australia Institute said New England’s growing unemploy- ment under the current government was a dramatic turnaround from the previous term of government.
Between the 2010 and 2013 elections the unemployment rate in New England fell by 0.4 per cent, with 397 people finding jobs.
New England now has the 15th highest unemployment rate of the 150 electorates in Australia, at 8.6 per cent against the national average of 5.7 per cent.
“While the Coalition’s mantra has been ‘jobs and growth’, this has not translated into positive outcomes for New England,” the report said.
New England MP Barnaby Joyce said the government had a number of programs in place to bring more jobs to the region.
“I can see what’s happening and I’m making sure we get that vital economic in- frastructure so we can drive jobs,” Mr Joyce said.
People just had to look at his election commitments, Mr Joyce said, to see where the region’s new jobs would be.
“The APMVA – we’ve ann- ounced we’re moving it to Armidale – that’s 175 to 200 jobs and all the associated jobs that go with that,” he said.
“We’ve put $75 million on the table for Dungowan dam. We know that if you’ve got more water infrastructure, you’ve got more jobs.
“We’ve already secured $400 million at the Glen Innes White Rock wind farm – 200 people to build it, 10 to 15 people fulltime after it’s finished.”
Independent candidate and former New England MP Tony Windsor said from 2010 to 2013 there was a lot of activity and government money coming into the electorate for a range of projects.
“If you look at the activity at the federal level, everything virtually stopped when the Nationals came in – for instance the National Broadband Network stopped,” Mr Windsor said.
“It’s not until recent months that we’ve seen this flurry of activity again in terms of government commitments.”
Mr Windsor said supporting TAFE, ensuring the successful rollout of the National Disability Insurances Scheme and rolling out fibre NBN would get the unemployment rate falling again.