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

I thank the member for Chifley for a very important question, because our economy walks tall in the world. We have solid growth, we have low unemployment, we have contained inflation and we have a strong investment pipeline. Of course, this government has always put the jobs of Australians first. That is why we acted during the global financial crisis to support the jobs of Australians, and we avoided recession because of what we did in putting jobs first.

We have always put jobs first in the reforms we have put in place through our five budgets in this House. This morning we have had a resounding endorsement of our economy and a resounding endorsement of our jobs record. Australia now has more people in work than ever before, with an unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent. That is something that everyone on this side of the House is proud of. Since this government was elected, 800,000 jobs have been created. But we cannot see anyone happy about that on the other side of the House.

There have been—

See this speech in context