Last Friday I attended the Jobs4Geelong expo, held at the Deakin University waterfront campus.
It was a two-day event held in a common area at Deakin, which was bustling with people eager to get information from the various stalls held by a range of local employers, recruitment agencies, training providers and other job seeker support services.
There were also around-the-clock information sessions from local organisations such as the Gordon, Barwon Health, Volunteering Geelong, the City of Greater Geelong and Karingal disability services. Sponsored by Bay FM and K-ROCK radio stations, the Geelong Advertiser, Enterprise Geelong and Deakin University, the jobs fair was yet another example of the Geelong community coming together in difficult times.
We all know that Geelong is a great city, but it is doing it tough.
We also saw on Friday a further 199 Ford workers lose their jobs, half of whom are from the Ford Geelong plant and some of whom made their way, with their wives, to my office, quite distressed.
In hard times the community of Geelong has always fronted up and pulled together because that is the Geelong way.
It is obvious just by looking at the sheer numbers who attended the Jobs4Geelong event that the people of Geelong are more than eager to work.
Geelong has many skilled and semi-skilled workers who are job ready.
We also have many young people who want the opportunity to work and not just sit on the sidelines of life.
There is no doubt that the Geelong community, along with many other key organisations, such as those who sponsored this event, are up for the fight.
But we want a government that is up for the fight too, a government which is active in chasing down investment, chasing down industry to set up and stay, and being proactive in job creation.