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Media Releases North Coast Local Employment Co-ordinator appointed
Media Releases North Coast Local Employment Co-ordinator appointed
| North Coast Local Employment Co-ordinator appointed |
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| Thursday, 03 September 2009 00:00 | |||
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A permanent Local Employment Co-ordinator has been appointed for the North Coast to help create and support local jobs, Parliamentary Secretary for Employment, Jason Clare announced today.
Mr Clare made the announcement while hosting a Keep Australia Working forum in Lismore with the Member for Page the Hon Janelle Saffin and the former head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bill Kelty. The forum brought together local business, government and community leaders to start work on a strategic employment plan for the Richmond-Tweed and Clarence Valley area. “The global recession has hit communities like this one harder than others. In places like the North Coast and Northern Rivers we need to go the extra mile to support local jobs,” Mr Clare said. “The job of the LEC will be to look for new job opportunities and work with business and the community to develop local a plan for jobs for the future.” Mr Terry Watson has been appointed the LEC for the area. Mr Watson is currently the General Manager of Norfolk Tourism and has a wealth of experience in the tourism and leisure industries which will be key to driving investment on the North Coast and Northern Rivers. Ms Saffin said the Richmond-Tweed and Clarence Valley region made up one of the government’s twenty employment priority areas. “Unemployment in this area now stands at 6.3 per cent which is above the national average of 5.8 percent,” Ms Saffin said. “That’s why we organised this forum, to discuss how to maximise the employment impact of the stimulus package to support jobs and industry locally. “The region continues to experience high disadvantage with around one in five people on some type of income support. “This is the reason the Government is continuing to stimulate the economy with more than $430 million in funding for projects allocated to this region alone under our Nation Building Plan.”
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