Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McEwen for his question.

An opposition member: It is a hard one.

I do thank the member for McEwen for his question because I know, unlike those interjecting, that he is deeply concerned about Australians having the benefits and dignity of work. The story of this budget is a story of getting the budget back into surplus, as our economy requires as it moves towards full capacity. We will get the budget back into surplus in 2012-13, exactly as promised. It is the right thing to do by the economy and it is the right thing to do by families facing cost of living pressures.

But the story of this budget is also a story of jobs and opportunity. We believe in the benefits and dignity of work. We believe for Australians that a life of opportunity starts by having access to a job, and then by having access to skills and training and the means and wherewithal to get a better job—to get the next job and to keep progressing across their working lives. That is why when you look at the measures we have focused on in this budget, in circumstances where we have kept growth in spending so low, we have had to make tough choices but we have deliberately prioritised those things that go to give Australians a life of opportunity.

With the resources boom coming into full swing, and with unemployment moving down to 4.5 per cent, we have a historic opportunity to make a difference in long-term disadvantage in this country and to reach out to those Australians who are on the margins of Australia's life, who are on welfare and who do not have the benefits and dignity of work in their lives. That is, of course, about a pay packet and the choices that a pay packet gives you in your life, but it is also about the sense of self-worth and self-dignity—the personal connections and self-esteem that comes from having a job. We believe in the benefits and dignity of work. That is why we are so proud of having created 750,000 jobs and why we are proud that another half a million jobs will be created in the next two years. It is why we are so proud in this budget of the $3 billion skills package to give people new opportunities to get the skills they need to get their first job, to train again and to get a better job. Of course, the skills package comes with a profound reform agenda so that our training system can meet the needs of a modern economy, meet the needs of modern learners and meet the needs of our industries and businesses that most need access to skills during this phase of our economic growth.

This Labor budget comes with particular care and concern for those Australians who have been outside the mainstream of economic life: the very long-term unemployed, people with disability who can and want to work, single mums with teenage kids who need to get back into the workforce—a lifetime with a pay packet in front of them. These are Australians for whom we have shown care and concern. Yes, we have asked people to step up to new responsibilities and we have met that step-up with new opportunities to get people into work so that they can have a life and a life chance. This is a Labor budget through and through—delivered in the economic circumstances that the nation needs now and delivered by me as Prime Minister with Treasurer Wayne Swan and our economic team informed by Labor values which centre on giving people the simple opportunity of a job.

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