Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Minister for Workforce Participation) Share this | Hansard source

Let me remind you again, since the opposition is so keen to know, that Labor presided over an ‘unemployment policy’ where they had at the peak some one million Australians out of work and an almost 11 per cent rate of unemployment. What extraordinary misery! What a disgrace! Let me give you one statistic that I think sums it all up. In the last six months the Australian government placed more people in work in long-term, real jobs than was achieved in the last six years of Labor. In the last six months we found more work for Australians than in the last six years of Labor. So the Howard government will continue to focus our employment policies on creating real jobs for all Australians, particularly for those who face multiple barriers.

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