Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Rudd government understands the damaging impact that unemployment and uncertainty have on the economy, on families and on the wider community. That is why employment will continue to be at the forefront of this government’s economic strategy. In contrast, we heard the shadow Treasurer this weekend say that he did not think that the principal aim of economic policy during a global recession was to stop the damage done to Australian families by joblessness. The shadow Treasurer has come clean and admitted that supporting jobs is no longer his party’s highest priority. His comments prove that those opposite simply want to pull the plug and the rug out from under Australian families. How callous. How disgraceful. (Time expired)