Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Is it a fact that today’s industrial disputation data show that strikes are at the lowest level on record? Is the minister aware of proposals which might increase the rate of industrial disputes, and what impact might this have on employment generally and also in my electorate of Hasluck?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck for his question because today we have had two pieces of very important economic data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Not only, as the Prime Minister indicated earlier, have we seen the creation of more than 1,000 jobs each and every day since Work Choices came into operation—more than a thousand jobs a day being created in Australia since Work Choices—but the ABS data also show that we have the lowest level of industrial disputation since records were kept. And can I indicate to the House that the first time records were kept in relation to industrial disputation in Australia was in 1913, before our troops went to Gallipoli. We now have an industrial disputation level in Australia of 3.1 working days lost per thousand employees. The highest rate in Australia was 104.6 working days lost per thousand employees.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney is warned!

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was in December 1992—and guess who was then the minister for employment in Australia? The minister for employment in Australia was none other than the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Brand, when we had the highest level of industrial disputation in Australia.

The member for Hasluck asked me about the impact in terms of his electorate. I can reveal that the unemployment rate for his electorate in the March quarter of this year—the latest figures on the electorate breakdown of the unemployment rate—was 4.3 per cent. I spoke about the time when we had the highest level of industrial disputation. The unemployment rate in the electorate of Hasluck at that time—again, when the Leader of the Opposition was the minister for employment in Australia, responsible, one would have hoped, for creating jobs but indeed, as it turned out historically, responsible for destroying jobs in Australia—was 10.9 per cent. I say to the member for Hasluck and, through him, to the constituents of the seat of Hasluck in Western Australia—

Michael Hatton (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hatton interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blaxland is warned!

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

here is the comparison between the two: 104 working days lost per thousand employees and a 10.9 per cent unemployment rate or, today, 3.1 working days lost per thousand employees and an unemployment rate in Hasluck of 4.3 per cent. This is quite clear: it is good news for the electors of Hasluck; it is good news for the people of Australia. It is good news because this is a government which has presided over a strong economy in this country. And, ultimately, it is that strength of the Australian economy which has led to that wonderful increase in jobs over the last five months in Australia, something which all Australians will benefit from.