Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. I always appreciate your protection for a fellow South Australian. Senator Mason, I do not know where you have been for the last two years, because this country, thanks to programs like the one that you are criticising, the BER—the sorts of programs that this government introduced—Australia avoided the great recession. Some people call it a depression. Look overseas at countries like the United States, which has 10 per cent unemployment. Yesterday I was talking to an official in the water industry of Spain. He tells me that in his country there is 20 per cent unemployment. You go through countries in Europe. What is the situation in Australia? We are now the envy of the OECD countries because this government, with programs like the BER, enabled Australians to remain in jobs. Because they remained in jobs, they continued—