Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

You can always play games with statistics, and the Labor Party are masters at it. Everybody knows that when we got productivity gains after 1993 they were coming off one of the lowest bases that we had ever suffered in this nation. As a result, it is easy to point to productivity increases when you come from such a very low base. It is the same silly argument that they raise about employment growth. They say that there was a great degree of employment growth as we brought unemployment down from the one million plus to five per cent. Of course it is a lot harder to then reduce the unemployment rate from five per cent to 4.5 per cent. That is a lot harder task. Most people understand that. It is a pity that the Australian Labor Party do not. That is why they are unfit for office.