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

I thank Senator Crossin for the question. I think it reflects the government's priority, in sharp contrast to the priorities of the opposition. The Australians I talk to are interested in the economy and in jobs. Jobs are the No. 1 priority for the Gillard govern­ment. Around 750,000 more Australians have a job now than before we came to office. Labor is the party that has a jobs agenda at its heart. That is why we are committed to supporting Australian jobs, not just in the cities but through every region in the country. During the global financial crisis the No.1 priority of our response was protecting Australian jobs. As a result of that stimulus package we avoided recession while virtually every other advanced economy went backwards. We kept 200,000 people in work who otherwise may not have been—200,000 people who might have been unemployed were kept in work. So this government is very proud of that achieve­ment and it reflects our priority, which is supporting and creating jobs for Australians.

Mr President, as you know, our stimulus package was very well reviewed by leading economists because it worked in terms of stimulating the economy and protecting jobs. If we had not done that, if we had listened to the opposition, thousands of Australians would have lost their jobs; thousands of them would have been thrown out of work. We thought that creating and supporting jobs had to be the priority during the global financial crisis and that is what we continue to believe. In times of economic uncertainty we still have the jobs agenda at the centre of the government's policy, be it investing $3 billion in skills to develop the future work­force of Australia, be it investing in critical infrastructure which is providing work for Australians or be it through taxation meas­ures to take advantage of the mining boom to help provide support to other measures in the economy. All of it is about jobs. (Time expired)