Shadow Minister for Finance and Shadow Minister for the Illawarra Peta Seaton said today the news BlueScope Steel will close its mill in Port Kembla highlights the poor growth opportunities in the NSW economy.
"The mill's closure as the result of the historic decline in the use of tin cans will hit the economy hard and put up to 250 people out of work," Ms Seaton said.
"The loss of these jobs adds to the companies fleeing NSW, including Kimberley-Clark, Qantas, Southern Meats, and Australian Paper," she said.
"This will be very tough for 250 local families, but even tougher because Morris Iemma has failed to stimulate new industry opportunities because high state taxes make NSW uncompetitive.
ReplyDelete"While unemployment nationally is at near record lows, NSW has been consistently worse because Labor's high taxes and mismanagement have robbed NSW jobseekers of the opportunities enjoyed in other states.
"Finding a new job in NSW is harder than it should because of Morris Iemma's economic vandalism over 12 years.
"The Illawarra already has one of the highest unemployment rates in NSW and these jobs losses will make the already tough task of finding a job even harder.
"Morris Iemma hasn't done enough to stimulate alternative employment opportunities.
"In order to stimulate the NSW economy, Premier Iemma should immediately adopt the Liberal/Nationals payroll tax cut policy and our housing rescue package.
"Sacked workers include highly skilled hardworking Illawarra people whose skills must not be lost and if we had a healthy housing and construction sector, I've no doubt many of these people would be snapped up immediately," Ms Seaton said.