Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I was the last minister for employment in the Howard government and, gee whiz, I remember leaving—

Honourable members interjecting—

That is right; I remember leaving an unemployment rate of around four per cent—four per cent! And when we came in we found an unemployment figure with a 6 in front of it. But the good news is that the coalition government has a plan to create more jobs and is delivering on that plan. We are delivering more jobs. We have four times the speed of job creation as under Labor. We got rid of that job-destroying carbon tax. We got rid of the job-destroying mining tax. We are getting rid of the job-destroying red tape. And the best thing going—we had the biggest infrastructure program in Australia's modern history, led by the infrastructure Prime Minister. We are opening up new trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China, and the Minister for Trade has been negotiating a new agreement with the fastest-growing economy in the world, which is India.

Ms O'Neil interjecting—

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