Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Ai Group’s services sector index has plummeted for the fifth consecutive month, revealing heavy job losses in retail, transport, communications and hospitality. How many jobs does the government forecast will be lost in the services sector in the next 12 months?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the question of confidence both in business and at the consumer level—I will come back to the question of the Ai Group in a minute—the impact of the global financial crisis has been felt across the world. If you look at business confidence indicators and consumer confidence indicators across the world, they have all taken a pummelling.

On the question of employment, as we indicated before, the government projects that the unemployment rate, according to our budget forecasts, will increase to 4.75 per cent by the middle of next year. We also note that employment growth is currently at 2.4 per cent, as of July 2008. The budget forecast is for employment growth to ease to three-quarters of a per cent over the year to June 2009. Also I would say to the honourable member that 33,000 jobs were created in the last two months; 136,000 jobs have been created since November 2007. This is a—

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. My question was specifically about job losses in the services sector, given the heavy losses reported today.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the matter of relevance, the Prime Minister will continue.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know these numbers will, again, upset the political narrative of those opposite, which is summed up in one set of words: talking the Australian economy down. That is all they seek to do. In fact, on our calculation this represents the 18th question from the opposition this week talking the economy down. I would think that a responsible opposition would actually engage in the reverse and instead engage in a debate about future policy options for the Australian economy.

Our economic strategy is clear-cut for the future. I have just run through the government’s employment forecast for the period ahead and the government’s unemployment forecast for the period ahead. I would suggest that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has not got the call.