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

I think it is interesting that Senator Cormann in his question refers to Europe as somewhere Australia should look to when it comes to competitiveness. If Senator Cormann wants to have double-digit unemployment, if Senator Cormann wants to have the risks in the financial sector, if Senator Cormann wants to see economies contracting, he can go out and explain to the Australian people that we should look to Europe. He should explain to them that, while 27 million people around the world as a consequence of the GFC lost their jobs, we have created 810,000 jobs here in Australia since Labor came to government. So if he wants to talk about a track record and the strength of the economy, I suggest he needs to do better than to look to Europe. With all due respect to our European friends, the reality is that that is not an example of an economy that is strong and certainly not by comparison in terms of investment in Australia.

The question shows yet again the sort of trash talking of the Australian economy that is clearly not in the interests of Australian workers but which those opposite are utterly addicted to. They cannot bear the fact that since we came to government that has been $919 billion invested in Australia. They cannot bear the fact that the economy is growing, they cannot bear the fact that unemployment is at 5.2 per cent. So they come in here and say it is all really bad and it is going to get worse and it is really bad because there is this carbon price. They said the sky would fall in previously and it might not have but they say it is going to. I think Australians deserve better than that.