Video transcript

Sorry, you need to have the Adobe Flash Player and Javascript enabled in your browser to watch this video.

To turn on captions, press the CC button in the video control bar.

Minister Gillard launches the Keep Australia Working Final Report in Werribee, Victoria on Friday 16 October 2009

We're here today for a very important announcement.

When Senator Mark Arbib and Jason Clare were first appointed as Minister and Parliamentary Secretary, we decided we wanted to take more steps to Keep Australia Working during the days of the global recession.

I asked them to provide me with a report about what we could do to keep Australia working.

They've provided me with that report and today we launch that report.

Of course, we have acted as a government decisively and quickly to support Australian jobs during the days of the global recession.

And whilst we saw a decrease in unemployment in the last month to 5.7%, we know that there are around 1.5% more Australians unemployed this time compared with last year. That is, the unemployment rate has increased by 1.5% in 12 months.

That means that there are around 600,000 Australians who are experiencing the great difficulties that unemployment brings.

That's why we've got to continue to support Australian jobs through the delivery of our economic stimulus package.

But we've been looking to do more and today I'm here with my parliamentary colleagues to announce that we will do more.