Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

He averaged 72 in his last test series, Daryl—better than anyone else! I thank the member for Corangamite for his question and note that he was a farmer before coming into this place. I bet he has a union official running against him on behalf of the Labor Party. Is that right? I bet that union official does not even live in his seat—just like North Sydney, where the Labor candidate does not live in the seat. It is true that the government remains absolutely committed to putting in place policies that help to deliver higher real wages, more jobs and fewer strikes. The government is committed to the goal that every Australian who wants to get a job can get a job, because that is what full employment is. It is amazing that we are the only government—certainly in the last 33 years and perhaps even since that Blues Point Tower deal—that could ever talk about full employment. Policies such as workplace relations reform and Welfare to Work have helped to deliver the infrastructure that has allowed business to employ more people and head towards full employment.

The fact of the matter is that Australia is running out of workers. We are not replacing ourselves as a nation. Our birthrate is not high enough to replace ourselves, so we need to have policies that are innovative—and even, some would say, courageous—that actually encourage people to get into work and to get off welfare. There are only three places you can get the workers of tomorrow: firstly, you can have more children—

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