Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

‘And it’s already happening’ is the interjection. I have some of those figures, Senator Bushby. Nine hundred and thirty jobs have been lost at Mitsubishi. Five hundred jobs—all working Australian jobs, not executive jobs and not jobs from Point Piper; these are all down on the factory floor—have been lost at National Parts. Fifteen hundred jobs have been lost at Qantas, 600 from the Insurance Australia Group and 600 from Don Smallgoods, and so it goes on. These are big cuts that are starting to filter through. There is a lag time with the unemployment rate at the moment, but these are figures that will come through.

As the previous speaker said, to that end confidence in Australia has collapsed to record lows. The confidence levels have never been so low since the 1992 recession times, and Australia is not even in a recession. Do not come to me and say that confidence around the world has collapsed. Australia’s confidence has collapsed more than in any other country in the world, and we are one of the only leading economies of the world that do not have a negative growth rate. The confidence is a judgement on this new government within the first nine months of their service. I support Senator Fifield and I commend him for the work he did with the former Treasurer.