Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I can. Colleagues, you will recall that when we were elected to govern in September 2013 we said to the Australian people that we would be a job-creating government. Well, jump forward to 2018, and guess what? We are delivering on that commitment.

I'm pleased to advise senators that 2017 was the best year for jobs growth since records began in 1978. On this side of the chamber, we created in excess of 400,000 jobs. Colleagues, 300,000 of those jobs were full-time jobs. Let's compare that to the record of those on the other side in their last 12 months in government. Let's have a look. Well, in their last 12 months they created less than 90,000 jobs, and the economy went backwards in terms of full-time job creation.

I'm delighted to also inform the Senate that this growth is now continuing. The number of jobs in Australia has now increased for the 16th straight month. This is an Australian record. It has never happened before in Australia—the longest consecutive run of monthly jobs growth ever. Senator Bushby, you're from Tasmania. You might like to know that in Tasmania this month the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3 per cent. You might also be very worried to know that, when Bill Shorten was employment minister, the unemployment rate in Tasmania was—