House debates

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Questions without Notice

Economy

2:02 pm

Photo of Russell BroadbentRussell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister outline to the House what plans the Australian government has to keep the economy strong and growing? Is the Prime Minister aware of risks to this economic security?

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

It remains the goal of this government, and it remains within the capacity of this government if it is re-elected, to keep the Australian economy strong and growing. Only the government has a plan to create a full-employment Australian society. Only the government has a plan to deal long term with the great water challenges of this nation. Only the government has a plan to deal in a balanced and sustainable way with the environmental challenges that this country has. Only the government has the capacity to deliver in the future what we have delivered in the past—that is, continued reductions in the taxation burden within the Australian community.

There is a threat to the implementation of those goals and that threat lies in the election of a government that would re-embrace higher unemployment. I never thought I would face a Labor leader who believed in higher unemployment. There was once a time when the proudest boast of Labor was that it believed in the workers of Australia and in delivering to them the opportunity that if they wanted a job they could have a job. That is what Ben Chifley believed in; that is what John Curtin believed in; that is what Bob Hawke believed in. But plainly it is not what the current Leader of the Opposition believes in, because the Leader of the Opposition wants to re-embrace higher unemployment by bringing back the unfair dismissal law burden on the backs of Australian small business.

We have seen a massive decline in unemployment in this country. I remind the Leader of the Opposition that since March 2006, when the industrial relations changes were made, 417,000 new jobs have been created. Ninety-one per cent of them have been full-time jobs. That is partly due—I do not say ‘totally due’—to the removal of the unfair dismissal laws. They are laws that would be brought back by the Labor Party. Bringing them back would lead to higher levels of unemployment in the Australian community.