Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join in congratulating you, Mr Speaker, on your new appointment. My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the state of the economy? What does a strong economy mean for jobs and growth?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Macquarie for her question. Over the last couple of months we have had some very pleasing economic information. Importantly, since the beginning of this year nearly 163,000 new jobs have been created, an average of 23,000 new jobs per month—23,000 new jobs per month. When Labor left office they were averaging 3,600 jobs per month. Last month Australia created 38,500 new jobs—more than 10 times the number of jobs created in one month than what Labor achieved on average every month in their last year in government.

We are proud of what we are doing in creating more jobs and, importantly, as a result of what we are doing—getting rid of the carbon tax, getting rid of the mining tax, fixing up 96 announced but unlegislated and undealt with announcements in tax by previous governments, ending the period of writing out blank cheques to industry or $900 cheques to individuals, rolling out a new infrastructure program and dealing with the legacy of Labor on the budget—our economic plan is working and it is creating jobs. I say again, last month alone, following our important and strategic government budget which focused on small business and enterprise, 38,500 jobs were created in Australia compared to 3,600 per month under Labor. It is a telling figure. Female workforce participation today is at its highest level since 1978. Workforce participation increased substantially last month. If we had the same level of workforce participation last month as the month before, the unemployment rate would have fallen from 6.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent. But, do you know what? The Australian people have confidence in us to run the economy. The Australian people know that if they go out and have a go then they can create more jobs, they can get better employment. The only friend of the working Australian is a coalition government. We are creating the jobs of the future.