Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I've been asked a range of questions. I think I've got two minutes to reply in the time allotted, though I will, in the course of this matter moving through the parliament, have more to say.

The member for Groom asked: what is the government's plan for unemployment? We have a plan. It's about training, it's about supporting industry and it's about supporting business. On current data, it's working. Unemployment figures today dropped, and I can inform the House that for the first time in our nation's history we now have 14 million people in work. That's a significant national achievement, which we're proud of our contribution to.

The member for Bradfield asked me a series of questions about the Consumer Data Right. All I can say to the member for Bradfield is that if it was such an important initiative they should have funded it. In fact, they didn't. It would have dropped dead. They had the opportunity to fund it in their last budget, in May last year; they did not. We've put an additional $80 million into it to ensure the Consumer Data Right is deepened and strengthened in the sectors where it's currently operating.

I'm asked about our digital agenda. The Minister for Finance is currently leading a project around a digital ID. I'm working cooperatively with her on that and a range of other projects. I've talked about our scams and antifraud agenda. Quite simply, if Australians cannot have faith in online commerce, they will stop using it, so our antiscams agenda is a consumer agenda but also an economic agenda. It will ensure that Australians who are doing their shopping online, doing their business online and transforming their businesses online into the data era can have faith that the people they are talking with or transacting with are legitimate. Our scams and antifraud agenda, together with our cybercrime agenda, is all about bolstering that confidence.

Finally, I was asked about business confidence and I was asked about confidence in the Australian people. Whenever I go and talk to business or the Australian people, the first thing they say to me is: 'Thank god we've got a grown-up government in charge. Thank god we've got a government that is focused on the Australian people and their needs, and not on itself.' So when we're talking confidence, let's have confidence, and we can be confident that we now have a government which is focused on the big challenges, whether it's energy, climate change, cybercrime, consumer fraud, inflation, employment, training, skills or immigration. We've got a government which is not fighting against itself but tackling the big challenges that we face, whether they are economic or social, I thank members for their contributions to this debate.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Attorney-General's Portfolio

Proposed expenditure, $3,464,557,000

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