Shorten launches Labor jobs taskforce

Bill Shorten has launched a Labor jobs taskforce to hear from successful businesses and devise a national employment plan.

From left; Queensland MP Susan Lamb and Tasmanian MP Justine Keay were announced as the chair and secretary of the task force. Picture: Supplied

Bill Shorten has launched a Labor jobs taskforce to hear from businesses who have created jobs and devise a national employment plan.

Announcing Queensland MP Susan Lamb and Tasmanian MP Justine Keay as the chair and secretary of the task force, the Opposition Leader said their brief would be to hear all the good ideas and good stories and see how they could be repeated nationally.

He used the announcement as a launching pad for his latest attack on the government’s policy on penalty rates, asking Malcolm Turnbull to rule out any taxpayer-funded ad campaign on the issue.

“We don’t need to use taxpayer money to pay an actor to go onto television to tell you it is a good thing that you are losing money,” Mr Shorten said.

“What the government need to do is to immediately rule out wasting taxpayer money, trying to convince people they are better off by having a wage cut and instead what we need to do is for the government to stop being so stubborn in refusing to oppose the penalty rate cuts.”

Mr Shorten said Labor’s jobs plan would also address the fall in apprenticeships.

“I think it is staggering today to realise that since the Coalition came to power the middle of 2013 that we have lost over 130,000 apprenticeship places,” he said

“We are a trading nation. 1.6 million Australians have trade qualifications. It is new time for our apprenticeships to be back in the middle of our vocational and higher education policies.”