Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

About 600 new jobs were created every day in Australia in 2014, more than three times as many as the year before. Is everything yet as strong as we would like it to be? No, of course not, but we are heading in the right direction. Let me tell you something: we are in a much stronger position than we would have been if Labor were still in government. If we had not got rid of the carbon tax, if we had not got rid of the mining tax, if we had not got rid of more than $2 billion worth of red tape costs for business, if we had not started to roll out our record infrastructure investment program, if we had not signed three free trade agreements with key economies in the region, we would not be heading in the right direction. But we are heading in the right direction.

Australia is on course but is still facing economic global headwinds. There are things that are happening that are outside of our control. Commodity prices have fallen more rapidly than anyone expected. You know what? That would have happened irrespective of who was in government. Iron ore prices went down from a high of $180 a tonne to about $58 a tonne today. Iron ore exports represent 20 per cent of our export income as a nation. Of course that is going to have an impact.

But let me tell you: we are in a more resilient position now to face up to those challenges than we would have been if Labor was still in government. The point here is that, as we are facing those challenges, we are working to put us on a stronger foundation for the future, where you were exposing us to more risk, making us less resilient— (Time expired)