Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and a lot of employment, indeed, Senator Furner. I know you are very concerned about employment and about working Australians, because before you came into this place, like many of us on this side, you supported working Australians. Who, in this chamber, did not support working Australians? Let me think—that’s right, it was those people on the other side of the chamber. What did they introduce? Something called Work Choices. What will they introduce if they ever, God forbid, get back into government? Work Choices. Why? Because the opposition leader, Mr Tony Abbott, is on the record as saying that he supports Work Choices. We all know that. He might not have much of a record as an economic administrator. I do not think Mr Abbott has ever held an economic portfolio. Heaven forbid that he has to rely on people like Senator Barnett or Senator Joyce, who has been providing him advice on financial matters. Senator Joyce, I think, had something to say about the paid parental leave package and its being a tax, but I do not have time to go further into that issue. It is just another interesting example of the kinds of divisions that we see in the coalition, which pretends that it would like to be the alternative government. Heaven help us if that ever happens!

When the Rudd Labor government announced our Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan in February of last year, our economy had contracted and was on the brink of recession. We were facing the very bleak prospect of a million Australians being out of work. As a government, we were determined to do whatever we responsibly could to protect our economy, to protect jobs, and to protect small businesses. And that is what we have done. One year on, a combination of the economic stimulus and the resilience and hard work of Australian families, workers and businesses has meant that we have avoided recession and saved the jobs of tens of thousands of Australians. Together, we have achieved stronger growth than any other advanced economy, created jobs, kept unemployment levels down and, most importantly, put in place the bones of the infrastructure for a modern, responsive economy into the future.

To those on the other side who continue to bleat that they are unimpressed with the government’s innovative and astute actions: let me remind you of the statistics. The most recent labour force figures showed unemployment increased by just 0.1 per cent in February, rising to 5.3 per cent from January’s revised rate of 5.2 per cent. The fact that Australia’s unemployment rate has a five in front of it, after what the world economy has come through in the past 18 months, is a testament to the resilience of Australian employers and employees and the way they have got behind economic stimulus.

At 5.3 per cent, Australia’s unemployment rate remains lower than that of every major advanced economy except Japan. Since the start of the global recession, countries like Canada and the UK, and the European economies, have lost millions of jobs, and 6.8 million jobs have been lost in the US. The ILO’s recent Global employment trends report found that a total of 27 million people lost their jobs in 2009. That is a frightening statistic. It is a statistic that the Rudd Labor government knew was in the offing. When we introduced our economic stimulus plan it was with a view to preventing the worst of that terrible economic downturn affecting Australia.

I would like to conclude by reiterating that it is very unfortunate the opposition uses its time with these motions, which do nothing to advance Australia. These motions simply emphasise that the opposition is without vision, without plans and without forethought. The opposition are whingers, knockers and extremists and are out of date. They refuse to contribute meaningfully in this place and refuse to pass legislation, such as the CPRS legislation, the fairer health insurance legislation and the NBN legislation. They refuse to do anything at all constructive to assist Australians, Australian families and Australian businesses into the future.

You are the ones who are wasteful. You are the ones who are mismanaging your responsibilities as an opposition. You are a disgrace, and so is this motion.