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

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his very important question because, from day one, we on this side of the House have made the jobs of working Australians our No. 1 priority, so much so that there are more Australians employed now than we have ever had in our history, and we have an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent. That does not mean to say that there are not challenges elsewhere in the economy, but having an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent after we have come through a really torrid global recession is a very substantial achievement, and it is one that everyone on this side of the House is very proud of. We know that, if those on the other side of the House had had their way, hundreds of thousands of Australians would have been thrown on the unemployment scrap heap and tens of thousands of small businesses would have closed. But we are getting on with the big reforms to ensure strong economic growth and more Australians getting the jobs of the future.

We are investing $3 billion in skills. As Senator Arbib said yesterday, one of the things we are most proud of is our record when it comes to apprenticeships. We are very proud of that record. Everyone on this side of the House knows what we did to keep young Australians in jobs and young Australians getting trained. We are also proud of our investment in infrastructure, building the NBN—and here there is a very clear contrast with those on the other side of the House—

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