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

I'm absolutely delighted to update the Senate in relation to the labour force figures that came out today. The Turnbull government's economic policies are overseeing an extraordinary result for Australian jobs. The jobs figures released today have seen a number of records created. Today we saw the 17th consecutive month of job creation in Australia, with 17½ thousand jobs created. That's the 17th month in a row when the number of jobs in our economy has increased. This is a record high. We also have another record high, though, and that is, of course, total employment. Total employment in Australia has now risen to a record high of 12,480,500. That is an absolutely outstanding result for Australians.

In the last 12 months, as Senator Cormann stated, we've seen in excess of 420,000 jobs created. Three-quarters of those jobs—327,500—were full-time jobs. The economy is out there and business are out there and employers are out there not only creating jobs, but three-quarters of those jobs were full-time jobs. That is actually the highest number of full-time jobs created in a 12-month period since we began collecting the data 40 years ago. And, contrary to the negativity of Labor and the union movement, full-time employment is now also at a record high in Australia, with more than 8.53 million jobs.

But we acknowledge that this doesn't happen by accident. You've got to put in place the right economic policies. You've got to get the right economic fundamentals so that the economy responds positively, as it is doing. (Time expired)