Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Only just last week what we saw with the labour force figures being handed down was that unemployment in Australia dropped by 0.4 points to 5.1 per cent. In fact, that is lower than when Labor was last in office. When they were last in office in August 2013, it was 5.8 per cent. We also saw employment figures that well exceeded the market expectations, with 115,000 more Australians in work in the month of May.

What we have also seen is seven months of continuous employment growth and there are now 130,000 more Australians in work than we had prior to COVID-19. We also have record female employment with 6,255,000 females in work across Australia, and we have 97.5 thousand more females employed—more than prior to the pandemic.

We also have record male employment, with 6,870,200 in work across Australia. That's actually 32,900 more males in employment than prior to COVID-19. We've also seen Australians putting up their hands and saying they have confidence in the labour market, with the participation rate rising by 0.3 percentage points to 63.2 per cent. We're putting in place the right economic policies to help businesses employ more Australians.