Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If ever there were evidence required in the parliament that the Labor Party is unfit for office, this motion by the Chief Opposition Whip provides it. This motion proves that the federal Labor Party has no economic credibility or credentials and is certainly unfit to govern this great country. It is quite amazing that today, in the 21st century, the ALP still seems to live and breathe the world of 19th century industrial relations thinking. The ALP seems to think that the 21st century world is a world of Dickensian worker oppression and exploitation. The Labor Party’s ideas and policies are very much still rooted in a world of employer-employee conflict and clashes.

Today’s economic architecture of the 21st century is very different. No longer is it just the world of labour versus capital or labour versus management. For example, more than a million Australians own and operate their businesses from home. Today’s economic world is very different from the world that the Labor Party still thinks exists. The globalisation of labour, technology and capital in the 21st century absolutely demands that this country must build its prosperity on productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship. We must continue to reform our economy and create the economic framework in which businesses can employ people. That seems to be one of the things that the Labor Party forgets. It is businesses that employ people. It is businesses that give Australians the jobs that provide the economic security for them to sustain their families.

Australia’s Work Choices legislation, introduced in March, is all about that. It is all about creating the framework and the economic architecture that allows businesses in this country to be commercially successful and profitable and therefore to employ Australians. My fellow Australians, if a company is not successful profitably, if it is not successful commercially, it cannot employ anyone. Surely the Australian Labor Party understands such an elementary point.

Since March, when the workplace legislation was introduced here in the parliament, over 175,000 jobs have been created—over 1,000 new jobs a day. I am sure that many Australians listening today would not need to be reminded that, under Labor, unemployment stood at over 10 per cent. How was that economic justice? For a party that is all about so-called economic justice, how can one million people out of work provide economic security for their families? How is that beneficial to the lives of the working class, the people that the Labor Party claims to represent? Of course today the Australian people know that 4.8 per cent is the figure of unemployment in this country, the lowest in three decades. Participation rates are at about 65 per cent, which reflects very strongly that the policies and initiatives of the Howard government are the right ones in the 21st century.

This motion talks about young people in jobs. Let me just remind the Australian people that in July 1992, when the man in this parliament who seeks to be the Prime Minister from the Labor Party was the employment minister, unemployment for young people was over 10 per cent. Today in October 2006 that figure is 4.4 per cent. So let us not just hear what the rhetoric is from the Labor Party; let us look at the figures, let us look at the reality.

I want to refer to the status of women in this country. The unemployment rate for women is 4.8 per cent and there are 4.6 million women in the workforce—a 28 per cent increase since 1996. More than one million women have found jobs since the Howard government came to office in 1996. This motion attacks Jetstar, a company that is employing Australians. My goodness! Here is the Labor Party, which claims to represent the workers of this country, attacking an Australian company that is employing men and women throughout this country. This motion should be condemned in the parliament. This is a motion against business. This is a motion against economic security for everyday Australians. Over 200 people were employed by Jetstar recently out of expressions of interest from some 2,800— (Time expired)

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