Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House the results of the November labour force survey? What do these statistics indicate about the success of the government’s economic policies? Are there any other views?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Cook for his question. Today we had the release of the labour force figures for the month of November. Those figures showed that in the month of November, the month just gone by, in Australia there were 57,400 new full-time jobs created. That is extraordinary jobs creation. After allowing for a fall in part-time employment, overall employment increased by 36,200 persons. If we go back over the nine months or so since Work Choices, there have been 200,000 new jobs created in Australia. If we go back to—

Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How many were created by the state governments?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bendigo asked, ‘How many of these were created by the state governments?’ Talk about the blame game. I thought you were against trading off the federal and the states? Oh, sorry, you would have voted for Kevin Rudd. I am sorry. You were not part of it. If we go back over 2006, we have had 250,000 new jobs created in Australia—a quarter of a million. I want the House to think back to the crowd at the MCG protesting about Work Choices. There were 40,000 people there. Imagine that 40,000 people in the MCG and now imagine six times that number, because six times that number is the number of people that have found work in the last year. Over the course of the 10 years of this government, there have now been 1.95 million new jobs created.

Seeing as the Labor Party are so concerned about the blame game, they would have been terribly concerned about an article in today’s Daily Telegraph written by Michael Costa. It says, ‘Costello’s inflated policies hurting NSW’. No doubt the Leader of the Opposition will be straight on to him and say, ‘Mr Costa, we don’t play the blame game in the Labor Party.’ We have 1.95 million new jobs and 10 years of economic growth, we survived the Asian financial crisis, we survived the tech wreck, we survived the US recession—

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

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

The member for Melbourne is warned.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We survived the one-in-100-year drought.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are the states’ responsibilities for setting interest rates, Pete?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know you are auditioning for shadow Treasurer. And you have one thing going for you—you are not a female. Females are not doing too well in this shadow ministry. Look at all of the suits, Mr Speaker. I think it was the member for Throsby who complained—

Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Griffin interjecting

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

Order! The member for Bruce will remove himself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Bruce then left the chamber.

Order! The level of interjections is far too high.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The New South Wales Treasurer came out with this little gem yesterday. He called on the federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, to prevent the Reserve Bank from increasing interest rates. He said, ‘The federal government has the power to intervene against the RBA and, as I have said on many occasions, he ought to exercise that power.’ I called this one of the great feats of economic ignorance—saying that the federal Treasurer, the federal government, ought to undermine the integrity and independence of the Reserve Bank, which has been one of the cornerstones of Australia’s economic policy over the last 10 years. There you have the New South Wales Labor Treasurer, who does not support the independence of the central bank, who has called for federal government intervention and who does not understand how monetary policy is conducted in this country. The Labor Party never supported the independence of the Reserve Bank when they were in office. It was one of the great economic reforms that we put in place in 1996. We will not be moving off it. We will not be giving in and surrendering that important plank of economic policy. It ill behoves anybody in the Labor Party to be arguing to the contrary.