With Brendan Connor MP, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Ed Husic MP, Shadow Minister for Employment Services and Workforce Participation.

Today’s reports that Telstra will be making 8,000 workers redundant exposes the Turnbull Government’s complete lack of a jobs plan for Australian workers.

Labor is concerned that we are seeing yet another example, under Turnbull’s Government, of thousands of Australians losing secure, decent jobs, without a plan to transition into new jobs.

In the 2018 budget the Turnbull government took money from the Labour Market Support Stream, which is used for structural adjustment packages, because they didn’t think it was needed.

This is another example of the Turnbull Government being completely out of touch with what is happening in the labour market and not being unprepared to help workers.

This government has a callous disregard for workers. Just this morning in response to these job losses, Paul Fletcher said, “these things happen”. 

Telstra should consult with its employees and unions about managing the effects of a very significant loss of jobs. And the Turnbull Government must not sit idly by.

The Turnbull Government must actively be involved to ensure that affected workers get the intensive and tailored support they need to transition to new employment and where required, provide training and case management services.  It’s simply not good enough to sit back and leave it to Telstra.

Labor is calling on the Government to take appropriate action to support these workers, and we will be keeping a close eye on what impact these developments have on front-line staff and customer service.

Under this arrogant and out of touch government Australians are suffering from stagnant wages, rising insecure employment, cuts to penalty rates and soaring costs of living. 

It is unbelievable that on a day of devastation for thousands of Australian workers, Minister Fifield’s response is to play politics and push the Turnbull tax cuts to big business.  How out of touch can you get?

Unlike the Liberals, Labor will always be the party of jobs and will work for decent, secure jobs for all Australians.