Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member for Gorton said that we cannot pick and choose when it comes to the drought versus productivity. He said that we are not in a position where we can claim credit for the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years and we choose to blame lower productivity on the drought. Well, it is no accident that you have the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years. Once upon a time, people used to think that six per cent unemployment was full employment or five per cent unemployment was full employment and a participation rate of 61 per cent or 62 per cent was around full participation. It is no accident that you end up with an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent and a participation rate of 65 per cent, which is a record. Of course that participation rate will increase in July-August-September to new record levels as Australia embraces Welfare to Work, the same Welfare to Work that the Labor Party opposed. I understand that the $3.7 billion commitment to Welfare to Work will help to increase the number of people involved in the workplace, and that is a good thing. Our very strong view is that the best safety net that can be provided for Australian families is the opportunity for individuals to take up the offer of a job, to earn an income. This is where we and the Labor Party fundamentally disagree. The Labor Party were quite happy to see these people put on the scrap heap, left on ever-revolving welfare; and that is why they voted against our Welfare to Work initiatives. You cannot criticise them too much for that because it follows in a long line of opposition to every economic reform we have undertaken—be it tax reform, paying off the budget debt, setting up a future fund or privatisation. Privatisation was okay when the Labor Party did it; but when we did it, they had a deep-seated philosophical opposition to privatisation. They said, ‘It is the behaviour of capitalists,’ even though they chose to privatise TAA, Qantas, the first tranche of the Commonwealth Bank and a range of others.

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