Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the question in my capacity representing the Treasurer, because I do not think it is a question that goes to climate change. What I would say is that we have another question from an opposition that delight in trying to talk down the Australian economy. They cannot bear it when the economy is doing well. They would rather see the economy do poorly because it might improve their political position—and that is outrageous. They have come in here and they have tried to use unfortunate job losses for their own political benefit and now they come in here trying to talk down the economy.

The reality is that since this government came to power we have seen in excess of 800,000 jobs created and unemployment at 5.1 per cent in the last national accounts. This is a demonstration of the strong economic management of this government and the action taken by this government during the global financial crisis—action opposed by Senator Bernardi and his colleagues—which ensured we did not see the sorts of levels of unemployment and capital destruction that we saw in so many other advanced economies.

It is the case, Senator, as we have said in the 2012-13 budget, that we anticipate slower growth in employment. That is transparent in the budget papers. But I would invite him to, for once, instead of talking down the economy perhaps cheerlead the creation of jobs. Would he be prepared to do that?