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

I thank Senator Mirabella for the question and I understand that it is your first question in this place. How fitting, Senator Mirabella, that you ask a question in which the Australian people are actively interested. That is of course Australia's economic recovery and how the policies of the Morrison government have in particular got more people back into work.

We know that on this side of the chamber governments themselves do not create jobs. That is for the businesses out there, the employers out there. Governments put in place policies under which businesses are able to prosper, grow and create more jobs for Australians.

Colleagues, you will recall that in 2020, Labor's Jim Chalmers said that the single biggest test of the government management of the pandemic is what happens to unemployment and jobs. Well, on Jim Chalmers' own analysis, this is a government that has delivered for the Australian people. What the budget tonight will show is that the unemployment rate will drop, colleagues, to 3¾ per cent later this year. If you compare that to what the unemployment rate was in September 2013, it was 5.7 per cent under Labor, and, as former Senator Cormann always used to say, 'and rising', because that's their track record.

Currently, under the coalition government, under the Morrison government, it is four per cent, and what you will see in the budget tonight is 3¾ per cent later this year. Jobs are important to the Australian people. Work is important to the Australian people. Tonight you will see the lowest rate in half a century. This is a government that believes in policies to ensure businesses are able to employ more Australians.