NSW: MPs urged to return to parliament with 10,000 jobs gone

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-2009
NSW: MPs urged to return to parliament with 10,000 jobs gone

By Nick Ralston, State Political Reporter

SYDNEY, Feb 12 AAP - The NSW government is being urged to recall parliament early to
devise a stimulus package after the latest job figures showed 10,300 people lost their
jobs in the state during January.

The state's unemployment rate grew in January to 5.4 per cent from the 5.2 per cent
recorded in December and from the 4.5 per cent figure a year ago.

NSW is also above the national jobless rate of 4.8 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics
data shows.

Premier Nathan Rees said any increase in the jobless rate was a cause for concern but
"we are in the face of a global recession".

The state government has previously announced a two-day jobs summit that will be held
later this month.

But opposition treasury spokesman Mike Baird said Mr Rees and Treasurer Eric Roozendaal
had been too slow to act and 10,300 NSW residents had now lost jobs since December.

"They have been aware that this global financial crisis has been coming for a considerable
period," Mr Baird told reporters.

"They put together a mini-budget .. that stifled the economy and we are starting to
see the consequences.

"People are losing their jobs while Nathan Rees and Eric Roozendaal do nothing about it."

Mr Baird said that if the government wanted to do something meaningful it should recall
MPs back after the Christmas break before the scheduled resumption date of March 3.

"I think that any government that was taking the global financial crisis seriously
would have parliament back and they would be talking about what we could do in this state,"

he said.

"I certainly think there would be a lot of sense in parliament resuming."

However, Mr Rees said there had already been 250 people registered for his job summit
and the government would now have to move it to a larger venue.

The NSW Business Chamber has echoed Mr Baird's calls, saying the NSW economy desperately
needed a boost.

"The business community has been calling on the NSW government for months for a program
to kick-start the NSW economy and that call has now become even more urgent," chamber
chief executive Kevin MacDonald said.

"Premier Rees must use the upcoming jobs summit to turn NSW's lagging fortunes around,
otherwise the 10,000 people who joined the unemployment line in the last month won't be
the last."

Mr MacDonald said NSW businesses were crying out for tax cuts.

AAP nr/evt/jfm/mn

KEYWORD: JOBS NSW

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