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

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. What we are doing is putting in place economic settings which mean solid growth in our economy, low unemployment, contained inflation and a budget returning to surplus, along with rock-solid public finances and a huge investment pipeline. All of this comes about because we took the correct actions during the global financial crisis to avoid recession. The consequence of that has been something like 800,000 jobs created in this country over the past four years. We now get to a situation where our unemployment rate is 4.9 per cent, the envy of the developed world.

We have not seen or heard anything positive from this opposition about that good economic news. They just hate to hear good economic news. That figure of 4.9 per cent came through about three weeks ago and there has not been one positive comment from the Leader of the Opposition about an unemployment rate in our community of 4.9 per cent. Last week we had the new figure of half a trillion dollars invested in resources. Did we hear one positive comment from the opposition about that? No, no positive comments at all. Why is that? Because we have here in this opposition leader the most reckless and the most dangerous opposition leader we have ever seen in the history of our country. We have never had an opposition leader as negative as that man opposite. He will say anything and do anything to talk our economy down—and while he talks it down he then turns around and complains about lack of confidence. In America they have a term for that—it is called 'putting sand into the gears' and then complaining about things not working. That is what this opposition leader is all about, throwing sand into the gears.

Mr Tony Smith interjecting—

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