Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to today's labour force figures, which show that over 63,000 full-time jobs have been lost since the government came to power. One job has been lost every three minutes in Australia since the Prime Minister was elected. When will the Prime Minister give us a real plan and start fighting for Australian jobs?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like every other member of this House, I am conscious of the ABS statistics released earlier today and I very much regret the fact that unemployment is edging up. This is bad news. None of us like it. All of us must do what we can to prevent it. I do make two points, though. The first point is that, in the last economic statement released by members opposite when they were in government, unemployment was projected to rise to 6¼ per cent in the first half of this calendar year. So what has happened is that unemployment has done what members opposite said it would do under their own policies. Unemployment has done what the Labor Party said it would do under Labor's policy. Members opposite can hardly blame this government for the consequences of their own policies.

Members opposite created the problem and we on this side of the parliament are fixing it. That is what we are doing. Every single policy, every single measure that this government has put in place since the election, is designed to make it easier for businesses to create jobs. Whether it is taking off the carbon tax, whether it is taking off the mining tax, whether it is restoring the Australian Building and Construction Commission, whether it is giving environmental approval to $400 billion worth of new projects, or whether it is actually concluding negotiations for a free trade agreement with Korea—every single measure that we have put in place is designed to create jobs. That is why the workers of Australia know who their real friends in this parliament are.