Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Abetz for the question. Unfortunately I only have two minutes to take him through some of the government's achievements of which we are very proud. Most important is our economic record, which has brought economic stability to this country. The reason we have one of the strongest economies in the Western world is that, in the face of the global financial crisis and in the absence of bipartisan support for an appropriate stimulus package, this government invested in the future of Australia by stimulating the economy, by providing for jobs in our economy and by giving people a chance to work in the face of the global financial crisis, which has seen us emerge as the envy of the Western world in terms of the success of our economy. We are very proud of that record. It has seen us grow the Australian employ­ment market by over 700,000 jobs. We have been delivering for Australians real jobs and a strong economy in the face of very uncertain international events.

That stimulus package was directed at long-term investment in Australia's future, like education. While the opposition are disparaging about the investment in education, we have improved the education opportunities for Australians, whether in schools, vocational education or tertiary education. We have also taken steps to overcome the long disadvantage that pensioners had in this country—the failure under 11 years of the Howard government to recognise the plight of pensioners. We brought in the largest one-off increase in the value of the pension in decades. That increase allowed pensioners to live with some dignity. So we are very proud of that achievement as well, very proud of the fact that we have supported Australian pensioners and allowed them to live with some dignity.