Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the wonderful member for Werriwa for her question. Even as we campaigned in the referendum, even with everything that's going on around the world, this government has maintained a primary focus on jobs and wages and the cost of living, and the work that the skills minister has been doing with his state and territory colleagues and with the Prime Minister reflects that primary focus. The employment white paper that I released with a bunch of colleagues three weeks ago today reflects that primary focus as well.

The white paper and the work of the skills minister, the work of the Prime Minister and the work of the government are all about finding great jobs and great opportunities for more Australians and finding better trained workers for employers so that we can all prosper together. That's what the employment white paper was all about—helping Australians make the most of the big shifts underway in our economy and our society so that they can be beneficiaries and not victims of those changes. Working future, which is the name of the white paper, presents a vision for a more dynamic and inclusive labour market where everyone has an opportunity for a job and where businesses and communities can be beneficiaries of change and can thrive.

We start this task from a strong position when it comes to the labour market. Since monthly records started being kept in 1978—a good year, Mr Speaker!—there have only been 18 months with an unemployment rate with a three in front of it, and 15 of those months have been under this Prime Minister. More than half a million jobs have been created under our government—a record for a new government in this country. It took those opposite more than three years to create more than half a million jobs.

The white paper was about five things. It's about full employment, it's about job security and strong wages, it's about reigniting productivity growth after the failures of those opposite, it's about overcoming barriers to employment and broadening opportunity, and it's about building a skilled and adaptable workforce along the lines of the work of the Prime Minister and the skills minister over recent weeks and, indeed, over recent days as well. The white paper outlines not just what we're doing but what we intend to do, with 31 future reform directions and a bunch of new policies, including TAFE centres of excellence, the skills passport and more.

For those opposite, stagnant wages were a deliberate design feature of their approach to the economy. They oversaw the worst decade for productivity in the last half-century, and that's because they are long on nasty negativity but they are short on anything positive to say about the future of our economy, the future of our people or the future of our country.

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