PM calls for united approach

By Kelly Yates
“WE are all in this together.”
That was the message Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered during a community forum in Narre Warren last Sunday.
Mr Rudd made a national call for the nation to bind together as one in a campaign against unemployment.
In Dandenong, the numbers applying for unemployment benefits in January rose to nearly 3000, a 13 per cent rise over the previous month and in Cranbourne it was 15.5 per cent.
While the government must take the lead, Mr Rudd said, everyone had a part to play.
“We will do whatever it takes at a global, national and local level to support jobs and help those who lose their jobs to find a new one,” he said.
Two days prior to his visit to the City of Casey, Mr Rudd was at the G20 Summit in London.
“While sitting down with leaders from 20 of the biggest economies in the world, we all agreed that what began as a global financial crisis had already become a crisis in the global economy and was now becoming a global crisis in unemployment,” he said.
That’s why, according to Mr Rudd, the Australian Government is implementing an economic stimulus plan for the nation to reduce the impact of the global recession on Australian jobs.
Mr Rudd announced the new Jobs and Training Compact during the forum promising training, support and local initiatives to help Australians get back to work.
The initiative, which is the next step in the Government’s response to the global recession, has three parts including retrenched workers, local communities and young people.
“We can not afford today’s school leavers becoming tomorrow’s long-term unemployed so the government has announced 3,650 additional pre-apprenticeship places and $145 million to support “out-of-trade” apprentices who have been laid off by their employers,” Mr Rudd said.
The Australian Government will be proposing that every young Australian under the age of 25 years will be guaranteed access to a school, apprenticeship, training or higher education.
Mr Rudd announced the government would be investing $20.8 million for local employment co-ordinators to work in seven key locations across the country, with Greater Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia being selected in the south-east.
Mr Rudd also announced a $650 million Local Jobs Fund, which is a temporary fund to support local projects, in an effort to create job and training opportunities for people in communities most affected by the downturn.
The fund will help local councils build new community infrastructure like playgrounds, bike paths and restore heritage buildings.