Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Standing Committee On Economics' review of the Reserve Bank of Australia's annual report of 2013. I must admit I am a little confused about what issues in that report the Shadow Treasurer and member for Fraser was actually talking about, but I do know that he is the author of some very informative books where he makes some very wise and insightful comments. But I am afraid, after some of the points he raised there, that his next book will be more likely to be a children's fiction novel than anything of economic significance.

I will address a couple of the points that the member for Fraser raised. He talked about unemployment. Let us be clear: the record of the previous Labor government saw the unemployment queues of this nation increase by 200,000 people. We can fill the MCG twice with the extra number of people who became unemployed under the policies of the previous Labor government. So the member for Fraser is in no position to stand up here and lecture us about unemployment. Already this year we have seen an extra 100,000 jobs and the majority of those are full-time jobs, as the member for Herbert correctly points out.

The member for Fraser also went on about small business—about the wonderful work that the previous Labor government did for small business. Let me remind the member for Fraser of the number of jobs lost. Does the member for Fraser know the number of jobs lost in the small business sector over the previous six years, when he was a member of the Labor government? It was 513,000. Over half a million jobs in small business were lost during the six years of the previous regime.

See this speech in context