Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for that very important question. Jobs have been at the very heart of every single decision this government has taken over a five-year period. The decisions we took during the global financial crisis meant that we did not suffer the skills destruction, the high unemployment and the capital destruction that we have seen across so many other countries, developed economies, right around the world.

We can see the benefit of that in today's job numbers. I know those opposite do not welcome these numbers, but everybody on this side of the House does welcome these numbers. We had 71,000 jobs created in February. That is the largest monthly increase in over a decade. Of course we should be cautious about monthly figures; they can jump around. What we can say is that there have been 200,000 jobs created over the past year and 926,000 jobs created since the government came to power. That is 920,000 additional families with a breadwinner with a job. It is 920,000 new careers or careers that have been restarted. It is 920,000 opportunities for a better life, because there is nothing more fundamental to security, nothing more fundamental to peace of mind and nothing more fundamental to dealing with cost-of-living pressures than to have a job—and to have a job with decent working conditions. That is why the government does put employment at the very heart of all of its economic decision making.

You can see this is in stark contrast to what has happened elsewhere around the developed world. Unemployment hit 11.9 per cent in Europe a week or so ago. Countries there are still slipping back into recession. Those that have come out are slipping back in. Just look to the UK, where you see the impact of policies which hack away at growth and jobs. In the time that this has been achieved in Australia—over 900,000 new jobs—something like 28 million people globally have hit the unemployment scrap heap. This result for Australia is something that did not come by chance; it came by choice. It came because of a government that had the courage to take the big decisions in the face of the global financial crisis and the global recession. All of the time, jobs were at the very centre of our response, and that stands—as I said before—in stark contrast to some of the responses that are being seen in Europe and the response that has been seen in the UK, where they are on the verge of their third recession in four years. We do not want that for Australia.

That is the backdrop to the decision the government took at the end of last year to support jobs and growth. We understand that, if your economy is growing, if you are generating jobs, that is good for your budget. That is good for public finances. That is not something understood by those opposite. (Time expired)

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