John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

They are far better off. When Labor were last in government, they drove down their wages. When Labor were last in government, they lifted housing interest rates to 17 per cent. When this country had an unemployment rate of about eight per cent, the now Leader of the Opposition, who was then the Minister for Employment, Education and Training, said, ‘You can’t really get it any better than that.’ He gave up on the unemployed. In the time that we have been in government we have been able to get unemployment down to a 30-year low and there is no greater measure of the wellbeing of the Australian people than the ease with which they can win not only employment but also significant increases in their wages. Under this government, we have had an increase in wages of 16.4 per cent in 10½ years versus minus three per cent in 13½ years. We are now at a 30-year low in unemployment. Whilst, as always, I will check the figures of the member for Lilley, by any measure the Australian people are better off now than they were 10 years ago, and they are better off because of the enormous contribution the men and women of this country have made to the growth, wealth and production of Australia.

One of the reasons they have made that contribution is that they have had a government that has cared for them, they have had a government that believes in incentives, they have had a government that has reduced interest rates from the absolutely Himalayan levels that they reached under the former government but, above all, they have had a government that believes in the hopes and the aspirations of the Australian people. That has been behind our commitment to industrial relations reform. We have always been about fairness and flexibility, unlike the Labor Party that has always taken the view that it knows what is best for people. It said that for 13 years. I can say without fear of contradiction that the workers of Australia did not think it was best for them that their real wages fell in that 13-year period of Labor government.

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