Financial Sector Job Cuts
Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: I direct my question to the Minister for State Development. Is the Minister aware that the global economic downturn has resulted in massive job cuts in the Australian financial sector? Is the Minister aware that the ANZ Bank will cut up to 3,500 jobs, that St George Bank, following the Westpac takeover, will place 5,000 jobs at risk, and that Citigroup confirmed it would sack some of its 2,500 Australian workers as the company announced it would cut back its jobs globally? Other major financial institutions such as the Commonwealth Bank and the Macquarie Group have refused to reveal how many workers will be unemployed as a result of their massive job cuts. Given that New South Wales is competing with other economies such as Hong Kong and Singapore, can the Minister indicate what strategic policies will be established to ensure that the sacked workers remain in the labour market and that New South Wales remains the financial hub of Australia?
The Hon. Ian Macdonald: Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes asked an excellent question. This matter is causing a great deal of concern and is resulting in discussions not only by this Government but also by governments across the nation. In recent times Sydney and Australia have not been the only areas in which announcements have been made about job losses: Citigroup announced the loss of 54,000 jobs worldwide. The member would be aware that yesterday, or the evening before, United States President Bush announced an intervention to the tune of about $US400 billion in an attempt to rescue Citigroup, America’s second largest bank.
Despite that intervention and despite other government intervention in Europe and North America, we are led to believe that the worst is yet to come. We are continuing to work on a number of projects that were mentioned earlier by the member, but to be quite honest it is difficult at this time because most of the corporations in the financial services sector are on survival mode.
At the moment it is difficult to convince them to invest further in Sydney. I hope that later this year we will see our way through this and continue to promote Sydney as a financial services hub. However, as I said, that is difficult at the moment.