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

It just shows what an ungracious Leader of the Opposition in the Senate we have. Even Senator Fielding can crack a smile, but not the arrogant Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. The arrogance of the Labor Party knows no bounds. The situation is that we as a government have indicated that, other than possible finetuning, there are going to be no changes. I dare say that what Senator Minchin may have had in mind when he gave that speech was the need for the fairness test that we introduced, which has secured even further the safety net available to the working men and women of this country—because, if there is one thing the Howard government has always been concerned about, it is increasing the potential for jobs. The great news, for Senator Fielding and others who are concerned about families, is that there are now 416,000 extra breadwinners in the Australian community, helping families make ends meet because of our policies.

But we do not believe in jobs at all costs. That is why we have secured a strengthened, greater safety net for those who are employed at a level of $75,000 or less. What we have shown once again is that the government has this capacity to balance the interests of those vital areas of job creation and job protection. That is what we have sought to do. The three statistics that I think the government can be relatively pleased about—and we always accept we can do better—are these. Real wages under this government have risen by 20 per cent. Under 13 years of Labor they rose by either nil or one-point-something per cent—but minimally, if at all. We also have the lowest rate of unemployment in 33 years. And, if we have created all this havoc within the industrial community by our changes, can somebody explain why we now have the lowest rate of industrial disputation since records were first kept in this country in 1913?

So I say to Senator Fielding: you can read the headlines, you can read the ACTU reports that come out of their sausage machine week after week, but at the end of the day there are 416,000 extra people in employment because of our policies, and they have achieved real wage increases, over the period since we were first elected, of 20.8 per cent. In anybody’s language that is very good news for the families of Australia.