George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, happy new year to you, too. It is as clear as anything could be that there is only one side of Australian politics with any plan for Australia's future prosperity, and that is this side of politics; that is the Turnbull government. Senator Wong asks about the state of the economy. Let me remind Senator Wong that Australia's annual economic growth rate is now 1.8 per cent. That is faster than five of the G7 countries. Non-mining activity grew by 2.64 per cent over the year to September. When Mr Bowen was Treasurer in the Labor government, he left us with growth of 1.78 per cent in non-mining activity. That is the magnitude of the ramp-up under this government.

Senator Wong asks about unemployment. Unemployment is currently 5.8 per cent. Over half a million additional jobs have been created since September 2013, when the government was elected. There were 95,000 additional full-time jobs created in the last quarter of last year—95,000 additional full-time jobs. Jobs growth in the last quarter of 2016 was the strongest quarterly growth in jobs in six years. That is the fruit of this government's economic policies. Compare that to the position under the Labor government, when the number of unemployed increased by 43.9 per cent over the six years of the Labor government. The number of underemployed workers increased by 39 per cent under the six years of the Labor government.