Fed: Fox and Kelty back on the jobs trail

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2009
Fed: Fox and Kelty back on the jobs trail

MELBOURNE, April 5 AAP - Trucking tycoon Lindsay Fox and former union boss Bill Kelty
will work with the federal government to advise disadvantaged communities on ways to keep
locals in jobs.

Mr Fox and Mr Kelty have been appointed to work with local employment coordinators
in seven regions across Australia as part of a $650 million jobs fund announced by Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday.

The initiative follows a similar one in the early 1990s involving Mr Fox and Mr Kelty,
who travelled the country to try to create up to 60,000 jobs.

Mr Fox will repeat the journey with Mr Kelty, Mr Rudd said.

"I want Lindsay to be able to advise employers in disadvantaged communities on practical
ways they can keep their workers and even take on new apprentices and employees," Mr Rudd
said.

"But beyond Lindsay and Bill, I am also today making a broader call to the nation,
that is in these high unemployment areas, for all men and women of good will to rally
around our local employment coordinators and the consultation structures they create with
local government and the wider local community ..." he said.

Australia was not immune to the ebbs and flows of the global economy, Mr Rudd said.

"In the midst of all the complex economic jargon, all the political debates and all
the media commentary, where the rubber hits the road is in one basic thing - jobs."

AAP ees/gfr/ldj/apm

KEYWORD: JOBS FUND

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