Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is a rather inconvenient admission. I do not need you to admit that in here. I start my contribution quoting three numbers: 22, 20, and 4.9. The first is 22 per cent unemployment in Greece; 20 per cent in Spain; and 4.9 per cent here in Australia. Imagine the way the political discourse would be carried on in this country if we were loaded up with the number of jobless that exist in those countries. Certainly no-one wishes that on anyone but having that level of unemployment, not only as an economic issue but as a social one as well and its massive distortion on politics, would be phenomenal if it were to occur in this country. If anything, in terms of this debate, it is not so much that we talk about facts themselves; it is more getting a recognition of facts from those opposite. When you look at where our economy is relative to others, our economy has done phenomenally well. We are right to be proud.

Mr Briggs interjecting—

There are a lot of people that, I would say, Member for Mayo, seek to be gracious about the contribution of those opposite. It is easy to flog off a major asset like Telstra and use that money to retire debt, but where were you when we needed investment in education?

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