Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

If the senator cared about jobs, surely he would have supported the stimulus package, which was about making sure some 200,000 Australians and their families were not on the unemployment queues but stayed in work. His interest in jobs for working families is simply defined by his political opportunism, because we know that Senator Joyce, amongst others, has lined up to criticise the government's response to the global financial crisis, a response which has seen our economy grow and unemployment at the levels it is. Would the senator prefer the unemployment levels we have in Europe, which are double what we see in Australia? Would he prefer the unemployment levels across the G7 or would he like to have a look at where our unemployment rate is? We on this side care about jobs and we care about job creation, and we have designed our clean energy package with jobs today and jobs tomorrow very clearly in mind.