David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to contribute to a matter of public importance such as this one. It is interesting that we end there with the member for North Sydney talking about jobs. Notice that he did not talk about that nearly one million jobs that have been created in the economy since this government has been in office. Almost a million jobs created, with an economy that is now 14 per cent larger than it was before the global financial crisis.

We must put that in some global context, given that we operate in a global economy and any comparison must be one that looks at what is happening out there across the globe. Across the globe, throughout that period, tens of millions of jobs have been lost in economies but here in the Australian economy almost a million jobs have been created. That is a result of the economic policies that have been put in place by this government over that period.

There is always lots of discussion, with the benefit of hindsight, from those opposite and I note that the member for North Sydney quoted Nouriel Roubini. He said that Roubini is a very esteemed economist; certainly he is a well-regarded economist. I must make the point that he has been known by some under the name of 'Dr Doom', which I would have thought would be the very first sort of economist that would be cited by those opposite because they are talkers of doom at every opportunity. Throughout the last several years, when the Australian economy has outperformed every other major advanced economy, they have given no credit to the Australian economy; they have given no credit to the job creation policies of this government; but they now come into this place and point to an economist who has been noted for having predicted the global financial crisis. That is his principal claim to fame. They come in and quote that economist even though, for the last five years, they have been denying the existence of the global financial crisis. When the GFC hit—

See this speech in context