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

I thank Senator Bushby for the question. I am very pleased to advise the Senate that today's labour force figures show that full-time jobs are being created because of the policies put in place by the Turnbull government. Today's labour force figures show that more Australian are in full-time jobs than ever before. That's right, colleagues: full-time employment in Australia is at a record high.

I'm also pleased to advise that the national unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3 per cent. This is actually the lowest unemployment rate since November 2012. It compares to an unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent when Labor left office. Under the policies that this government, the Turnbull government, has put in place, in the 12 months to July 2018 in excess of 300,300 jobs have been created. The good news for Australians is that two-thirds of those jobs, 200,000 of them, are full-time jobs. The level of employment in Australia has now increased for 10 of the last 12 months. In the month of July, last month, we actually saw a net increase of 19,000 full-time jobs across Australia.

Senator Cameron interjecting—

Senator Cameron, this actually compares to your last 12 months in office when, you should be ashamed to know, the economy under Labor actually shed almost 17,000 full-time jobs in the last 12 months. In July of this year the economy, under us, created 19,000 full-time jobs. Full-time job creation is what you get when you put in place the right economic policies that businesses can lever off. (Time expired)