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

I thank the member for Greenway for her question. It is an important question about national policy and the things that are most important to Australian families. Of course, the thing most important to Australians is having the benefits and dignity of work and we are determined to keep our economy strong because we know that people must be able to get access to a job. There can be no security for Australian families or Australian individuals if they cannot access a job.

That is why we worked so strongly and so hard during the days of the global financial crisis to ensure that this nation did not go into recession and to protect the jobs of 200,000 Australians to make sure that Australians had the benefits and dignity of work. Having looked after those jobs during the days of the global financial crisis, continuing to strengthen and modernise our economy is an ongoing task. That work is never finished. You need to keep strengthening, keep modernising in our world of change. That is why the government has been so determined to ensure that, in this phase of economic transformation—as we see in our economy an incredibly strong resources sector, record terms of trade and a high Australian dollar, with the implications that has, some of them positive, and the implications that also has for trade exposed areas of our economy like manufacturing, tourism and international education—we are doing the things necessary to keep our economy strong for the future.

You cannot hide from the future. You cannot wish it away. There are only two choices: either you step up and shape it or it shapes you. I am determined that our nation will make the decisions necessary to make sure that we are the shapers of our future and, in shaping our future, we will be continuing to deliver policies that modernise our economy. In delivering those policies we will be focused on the importance of skills, education and human capital and on the importance of traditional infrastructure like roads and rail and ports. Of course, we will also be focused on the infrastructure of the future, including the National Broadband Network and the microeconomic reform agenda that needs to come with that, with the structural separation of Telstra. Of course, there will also be a focus on the clean energy jobs of the future.

Yesterday it was my very great honour to bring to this parliament the Clean Energy Bill—

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