John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Since 1996, real net household wealth has risen by an average of 8.8 per cent a year. Australia’s unemployment rate has fallen from 8.2 per cent in March 1996 to 5.3 per cent now. In Australia, 1.7 million new jobs have been created under the coalition and inflation has been contained, averaging just 2½ per cent a year. The greatest obligation that any government has is to look to the interests of the average working men and women of this country. We have done it. It has been at the centre of everything that we have done as a government over the last 10 years, and these figures released today show that real wages have risen by 16.8 per cent. Let me say that again: 16.8 per cent versus a miserable 0.3 per cent in 13 years of Labor. It is the latest piece of field evidence that this government remains dedicated to the interests of the average working men and women of this country.

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