Jobs shock: Far North Queensland dominates nation’s unemployment list

Shock new figures have revealed the extent of the unemployment crisis in FNQ – with two areas revealed as having the highest joblessness nationwide.

Shock new figures have revealed the extent of a worsening unemployment crisis in Far North Queensland – with two areas revealed as having the highest joblessness nationwide.

Data from Jobs and Skills Australia released exclusively to the Cairns Post shows that while the unemployment rate in Cairns is three and a half per cent, Yarrabah is the area with Australia’s worst unemployment rate at 48 per cent, with Kowanyama the second highest at 47 per cent – when looking at the average unemployment rate in every area Australia-wide over the last four quarters.

Kowanyama businesswoman Tania Major, a 2007 Young Australian of the Year, said that a lack of local industry and a lack of literacy in town was largely to blame for the issues.

“We have a passive, disengaged generation completely attached to welfare.”

Former Young Australian of the Year Tania Major says the FNQ should undertake “industry need analysis and training then provided to give people the skills that are in demand”.

Kowanyama is 600 kilometres northwest of Cairns with 1079 people, more than three quarters of whom are Indigenous.

The 2014 average unemployment rate in the Kowanyama Statistical Area Level 2 – an area used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to represent a community that interacts socially and economically – was 21%.

Seven of the ten SA2s with the highest unemployment in the nation are in the Far North – with some areas doubling in unemployment rates over the last decade.

Along with Palm Island in North Queensland (41 per cent) at third, the rest of the top six in the nation are Torres Strait Islands (36 per cent), Doomadgee (30 per cent) and Carpentaria (30 per cent).

Kowanyama is 600km northwest of Cairns. Picture: Supplied.

Cape York is at number nine with 21 per cent.

Unemployment in the Torres Strait Islands and Carpentaria SA2s have tripled over the last decade.

In 2021, the national unemployment rate for Indigenous Australians was 12 per cent.

By contrast the SA2 data shows the average unemployment rate for remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory was seven per cent.

Ms Major, who said her town had been “declining for several years”, wanted to know where all the skilled workers were.

“Why do we have all this wraparound government employment funding with no outcomes?” she asked.

“We need to create industry, we need to do industry needs analysis and skill people up accordingly.”

Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire did not respond to requests for comment.

However, Suzanne Andrews – the chief executive of Gurriny Yealamucka Health Services – one of Yarrabah’s largest employers with more than 100 employees, said chronic overcrowding in housing was not assisting adults to be “job-ready”.

Ms Andrews said that Yarrabah currently has approximately 4000 residents living in 414 registered dwellings.

Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire. Picture: Brendan Radke

Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter said government could mitigate several problems by boosting construction in remote communities, which would led to employment growth from “apprentices to business owners”.

“They lack rights to properly self-govern,” he explained.

A spokeswoman for Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the previous Coalition government’s work-for-welfare Community Development Program used in remote, mostly Indigenous communities was largely to blame for the high rates.

She said the last Coalition government failed to replace the “Community Development Program with real jobs, proper wages, and decent conditions”.

Bob Katter in Parliament Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Top 10 Small Area Labour Markets with highest unemployment in Australia

(Last four quarters averaged)

Yarrabah: 48 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Kowanyama: 47 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Palm Island: 41 per cent (North Queensland)

Torres Strait Islands: 36 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Doomadgee: 30 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Carpentaria: 30 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjar: 29 per cent (South Australia)

Elizabeth: 25 per cent (South Australia)

Cape York: 21 per cent (Far North Queensland)

Thamarrurr: 21 per cent (Northern Territory)

Originally published as Jobs shock: Far North Queensland dominates nation’s unemployment list