Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer. I remind the Treasurer of Westpac's announcement that it will have to lay off staff, OneSteel's announcement that 400 jobs are going to go, Qantas's announcement that 1,000 jobs are going to go, BlueScope Steel's announcement that 1,000 jobs are going to go and that 400 contractors will lose their work too. I ask the Treasurer: on top of volatility in the United States and Europe, is now really the time to be introducing an economy wide job-destroying carbon tax that will undermine confidence and make our exports even more expensive?

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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. Jobs have been the No. 1 priority of this government from day one. When it comes to carbon pricing, we are concerned about the jobs of the future in a first-class economy driven by renewable energy.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Treasurer has the call.

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

There are a lot of things that offend me about the opposition but one of the things that really offends me is how excited they get at job losses because they think there is some political credit in them for them. We on this side of the House understand the challenges, short-term and long-term, of creating a strong economy. We understand the need to maximise the opportunities that come from the mining boom. We understand the need for jobs of the future, particularly in renewable energy. Those opposite have no credit when it comes to jobs.

We on this side of the House moved to protect our economy at the height of the global financial crisis and the global recession. What did those opposite do? They voted against jobs in this House. When it comes to a record on jobs, we on this side of the House support jobs and we support Australian families—the 750,000 jobs that have been created while this government has been in power, the nearly 200,000 jobs that have been created. Today is a really tough day down in the Illawarra and a really tough day down in Western Port. We on this side of the House understand the gravity and the importance of this situation. We understand why it is important to put in place a range of economic policies which support our economy and future job growth. That lay at the very centre of the budget we brought down in May. We said then that we had a patchwork economy which would be impacted on by a variety of factors, and one of those is the Australian dollar. That has made life very difficult indeed for Australia's trade exposed industries. We understand that and that is why we have moved to put in place a range of policies to broaden and strengthen our economy to ensure everybody in our country, not just those in the fast lane, gets the benefit of a strong economy. That is why we on this side of the House have put in place a resource rent tax so we can give tax cuts to small business and corporate Australia more generally. That measure is opposed by those on the opposite side of the House.

We understand the importance of jobs. We understand the importance of spreading the benefits of the mining boom, we understand the importance of investing in skills and infrastructure and we understand the importance of bringing our budgets back to surplus in a responsible way, not $70 billion worth of mindless cuts from those opposite to make up for all of the thought bubbles of the Leader of the Opposition because he cannot run a fiscal policy. We on this side of the House understand the importance of fiscal policy. We understand the importance of investing in infrastructure. We understand the advantage of investing in skills. We understand productivity through investment in the NBN. But those on that side of the House just want to play cheap politics with the lives of people. We understand that we have to respond and assist those workers. We understand we need to be with those workers who are not in the fast lane of the mining boom. To do that, you have to have responsible economic policies. You cannot have a reckless Leader of the Opposition going around with thought bubbles. (Time expired)