Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government investing in jobs and a strong economy? And why is it the right decision to undertake the reforms necessary for the nation's future?

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Riverina is warned. The member for Lyons is warned. The Prime Minister has the call.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and her interest in this the most serious of issues—that is, the ability for Australians to have a job, to have the benefits and dignity that come with work. There is nothing more important to this government than making sure Australians have the benefits of work. There is nothing more important to this government than making sure we spread opportunity throughout Australian society—to every part of the nation—to engage in productive work. Getting a job is of course the foundation stone people need so that they and their families can have a good life. It is about getting a job. It is about ensuring that when you have a job you can also get access to the training opportunities you need to get the next job, a better job. It is about the journeys of people from welfare to work at the heart of our recent budget—to help people to make that journey so that they have the benefits and dignity of work. I fundamentally believe that those who can work should work, and that was at the heart of the recent budget.

When you are as serious as this government is about ensuring people have the benefits of work, then of course you do manage your economic policies so people can see those benefits. That is why we reacted so quickly and so decisively to ensure that we kept Australians working during the global financial crisis. We kept 200,000 Australians working. We were not supported in that. We had to battle it through, but we were determined to battle it through so that Australians had the benefits and dignity of work. It is why too, of course, 20 years ago, even though it was derided by others in politics, we as a political party said that this nation needed to turn its face to Asia and that our trading future would be in this growing region of the world, and so it is. So it is that our trade with Asia today enables us to see turbocharged our resources sector. A quarter of our goods exported alone go to China, fuelling its urbanisation and meaning record terms of trade for our nation. That is a good thing for the resources sector. It is a good thing for jobs in construction. It is a good thing for the jobs that flow as people continue to mine those very valuable commodities that China wants.

But, of course, at this stage of our economic development we are seeing the Australian dollar pushed up and when the Australian dollar is pushed up it does put pressure on other parts of the Australian economy. We are seeing that in manufacturing. We will be strongly engaged with manufacturing. We see that in tourism. We will be strongly engaged with tourism. We have been and we will continue to be. Of course, we will continue to be engaged with international education, a great export industry for this country.

We are fiercely proud of the fact that under this government 750,000 jobs have been created. We are fiercely proud of that fact. We are also very conscious that creating jobs for the future means we have to take the right decisions today to modernise and strengthen our economy, the right decisions so we have a clean energy future, the right decisions so that we have the best technology available to us and the right decisions so we are investing in the future of skills so that we can see people in the highest value-adding, and consequently highest paid, activities. We will always focus on making those right decisions so that Australians do have the benefits of work.