Senator RONALDSON (Victoria) (19:14): I rise tonight to inform the Senate of the important work being undertaken in Werribee, in my home state of Victoria, by the B-24 Liberator restoration project, which I had the great privilege of seeing firsthand but a few short weeks ago. Some background to this aircraft is first necessary. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was a World War II era heavy bomber produced by Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego, California, from 1939. Formed into seven squadrons, the Royal Australian Air Force had some 300 B-24s which, along with the B-17s, formed the basis of Australian bombing support in the Pacific theatre. Of course, these were not the only B-24s which defended Australia—with many more American B-24s deployed to the south-west Pacific area under General Douglas Macarthur. The Australian squadrons are particularly well known for having deterred from moving into the mainland a 50,000-strong Japanese force that had assembled in Timor. Although the B-24 Liberator restoration project itself has been ongoing since 1995—after the derelict fuselage of aircraft A72-176 was recovered from Moe in Victoria—the push to get an aircraft on public display began in 1988. A two-day meeting arranged by the B-24 Squadrons of Australia unanimously resolved to form the B-24 Liberator Memorial Fund. The foundation committee included Mr Bob Butler, Mr Eric Clark and Mr Terry Lane, with representatives from the RAAF, the Australian War Memorial and the National Trust. The purpose of the fund, as registered, is: To do all that is necessary to acquire an restore a B-24 Liberator and associated aircraft and artefacts, as a memorial to all those who served with Liberators during WW2, for display in an accredited museum as part of the national collection. The fund is a not-for-profit organisation and accepts members from the general public. There are many social initiatives, including their monthly B-24 Youth Group—an initiative which I feel represents an outstanding contribution to the preservation of Australia's national heritage. The sharing of experiences with younger generations is crucial to the preservation of their memories, and I commend the project for this imitative. To this point, the project has acquired some 90 per cent of the airframe and 70 per cent of the furniture and fittings—many having been donated from overseas. It is one of eight remaining B-24s in the world. As an indication of how few this number is, over 18,000 B-24s had been produced by September 1945. The project itself is based in Hangar 2 of the Werribee Satellite Aerodrome, a heritage listed structure constructed during the Second World War to complement the nearby RAAF airfields at Laverton and Point Cook. The project committee are, however, investigating a move to a new hangar, amongst other reasons, because Hangar 2 contains asbestos. From 1995 to the end of 2011 an estimated 288,000 volunteer man hours went into the restoration of the fuselage—288,000 volunteer man hours. These volunteers come from many and varied walks of life, including not only those who operated and repaired B-24 Liberator aircraft but also many who developed an interest during their working lives and whose skills sets, such as engineering, provide for an invaluable contribution. The Consolidated B-24 Liberator played a leading role in Australian aviation history, and I commend the volunteers for their gargantuan efforts over the last two decades. In the lead-up to Anzac Day 2012, and indeed afterwards, I would encourage all Australians to pay the project a visit. In closing, I thank everyone who shared their experiences with me. I particularly thank Judy Gilbert, the secretary, and Doug Lindsay, the president, and I pay particular thanks to Matt, who was a wartime Liberator crew member. I thank them most sincerely for the time they put aside for my visit. I congratulate those many volunteers, both men and women, who are working on this project and I wish them well for the future. I will now move on to another matter in the time that is left open to me. I am sure all honourable senators are aware of the material we receive from Gary Morgan in relation to unemployment and other matters. I noticed on 5 January—when I was back at work, I might add—that Mr Morgan actually put out some consolidated figures for the last quarter of last year. In that document sent out by Mr Morgan he indicated that December unemployment was at 8.6 million—or 1.03 million Australians looking for work; that 2.01 million Australians or 16.8 per cent of the workforce are unemployed or underemployed; and—quoting from Mr Morgan—'highest ever recorded and the highest ever levels among youth, women and Queenslanders'. In the October-to-December quarter of 2011, according to Mr Morgan, within the Australian workforce, as I said, 2.01 million or 16.8 per cent are unemployed or underemployed. Unemployment is highest amongst the young, with 18.5 per cent of the 18- to 24-year-old workforce unemployed and 17.5 per cent of the workforce aged 14 to 17 years old unemployed. Unemployment is significantly lower among the older age groups within the workforce, at 7.2 per cent for 25 to 34 year olds and seven per cent for 35 to 49 year olds, five per cent for 50 to 64 year olds and three per cent for those aged 65. Underemployment, which is part-time workers looking for more work, is also clearly higher among those aged under 25, with 22.9 per cent of the 14- to 17-year-old workforce underemployed and 15.2 per cent of the 18- to24-year-old workforce underemployed. Mr Morgan said: Unemployment analysed by age group shows clearly young people are the hardest hit — with 18.5% of the 18-24yr old workforce unemployed (more than twice the national average); and 33.7% of the 18-24yr old workforce either unemployed or underemployed. That was on 5 January in relation to the last quarter. Then on Monday we all received further information from Mr Morgan which showed a further deterioration of the situation—a further deterioration indeed. According to Mr Morgan, unemployment is up to 10.3 per cent—1.7 per cent higher than in December 2011—with now an estimated 1.278 million Australians unemployed and looking for work. This is Australia's highest ever number of unemployed as reported by Roy Morgan. This 10.9 percent—1,075,000 Australians—is also Australia's highest unemployment rate in the decade since January 2002. A further 7.5 percent of the workforce—934,000 Australians—were working part-time and looking for more work. In total, a record 17.8 percent of the workforce—2.21 million Australians—were unemployed or underemployed. Yet we have heard nothing from the Prime Minister—including, indeed, in question time today—about this matter. They are instead talking about the way the economy is being run and saying, 'let's have the debate on the economy'. I say: let's have the debate on the economy—bring the debate on the economy on—and we will be very active participants in it. Do not walk around saying that you are running a marvellous economy; do not walk around saying that you are creating jobs for Australians, particularly young Australians. You are not, and Mr Morgan has made that quite clear. It is good to be back in this chamber for the first time in 2012, and I hope it will be a year of many, many returns. I will continue to talk about unemployment and the Labor Party's complete mismanagement of the economy over the last four years. We will continue to talk about your budget deficits and about your abject failure in your budget deficits as well as about your failure to provide budget surpluses. We are very much looking forward to this debate, I can assure you of that. It will take place every hour of every day between now and the next election—you have our absolute assurance on that. The Australian people know full well how completely inept you are. Indeed, it is my understanding that tomorrow in one of the newspapers—which must remain nameless—of a particular Victorian city, the people of that city will show you how they think you are completely and utterly inept. We acknowledge that there is a long way to go before the next election, and we will not rest until we have shown comprehensively your complete and utter inability to remove yourselves from this diabolical economic mess. I leave you with this final thought, which I will repeat ad nauseam over the next 12 months: if you cannot run your own affairs, you cannot run the affairs of this country; it is about time you people stopped navel-gazing and worrying about who is going to lead the party—how about you start leading the country again?