Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. I think today’s employment figures are a tribute to the resilience of the Australian economy and to the hard work that employers and employees have done in extremely difficult circumstances over the past 12 months. They really are something special because, in the circumstances in which this country has found itself in over the last 12 months, to have created over 180,000 jobs is something very special. What it says a lot about is the impact of the stimulus. It says a lot about the resilience of our employers and the hard work of our employees. What we particularly celebrate about these figures today is the thought that 52,700 Australians have told their families in January that they got a job. Nothing is more important to somebody’s security than the certainty of their employment and the knowledge that they have a pay packet.

What has driven this government, particularly from the beginning of this global recession, has been jobs. It has been at the centre of everything that we have done in the economy. What it has meant is that when employment in other countries such as United States, such as Canada and many other countries was going backwards at a rate of knots, here we achieved such a special outcome for our country.

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