Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Can I inform the Government Whip to take the next dorothy dixer to me off the questions list! There is no doubt that one of the great features of Work Choices has been what it has done for small business in this community. If we want to look at surveys, the greatest survey of all is the employment survey: 263,000 of our fellow Australians are now in employment since Work Choices. For youth unemployment since Work Choices has come in: a 0.8 per cent decrease. For the very long term unemployed what does the survey show? A 25 per cent decrease. And so the statistics go on and on, showing the great benefits to our fellow Australians who previously had been left on the social scrap heap of unemployment—something which those opposite excelled in when they had over one million of our fellow Australians on that scrap heap.

When we came to government we said we would devote ourselves to reducing the unemployment rate. We have taken strong, tough decisions, sometimes in the short term unpopular; but in the long term they have delivered social justice. The greatest social justice initiative that any government can provide is a job to its citizens.