Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

France’s unemployment rate is 9.1 per cent, Germany’s is 10.9 per cent, and the Euro area in general has an unemployment rate just under eight per cent. It is very interesting that the countries that stand out as having the lowest unemployment rates—the UK, the US, New Zealand and Australia—are those with the more flexible labour markets. It is noteworthy—and I ask the Labor Party to take note of this—that, in the four months since our Work Choices legislation came into effect, there have been over 159,000 new jobs created. So, far from resulting in the mass sackings that Labor assured us would occur, the removal of unfair dismissal laws has so far resulted in more jobs being created.

There is a very clear message from these results: if you do want to keep generating jobs and prosperity, you cannot do it through more regulation and more legislative restrictions on Australia. We can only do it through openness and flexibility, so we can compete with the rest of the world. Indeed, on that theme, UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair made a very good speech recently, talking about the need for strong leadership in what is a rapidly changing global environment.