Senate debates Questions without Notice

Economy


Katy Gallagher

Katy Gallagher ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service

2:48 pm

As Senator Roberts will know, unemployment is at historically at low levels, sitting at 4½ per cent. In recent times, over the data sets, participation rates have been historically high, including for women. We've got the gender pay gap at record lows. We've got employment at 14.8 million, so we've created 1.3 million jobs since coming to government. Women are employed full time at much higher rates—4.1 million. We've got industrial disputes down. We've got annual wage growth over three per cent. So I think, on any measure, when you look at how the labour market is performing, Senator Roberts, it is being pretty resilient against the backdrop of global uncertainty and all of the risks that come with that. The Australian economy has actually fared very well in terms of job numbers, in terms of the participation rate, in terms of wages and in terms of the number of jobs that have been created under this government.

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