George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, I thank you for your question because it gives me the opportunity to acquaint the Senate and to remind honourable senators of the many great achievements of the last two years—two years in which this government has been focused on building a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

We hear some caterwauling over there from Senator Stephen Conroy. He is a senator who was so embarrassed by the previous Labor government—the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government—that he refused to even be a member of it; he refused to even serve in it. That was the government that we replaced two years ago today, and in that time 335,000 new jobs have been created. In this year alone, 163,000 jobs have been created—that is an average of more than 23,000 jobs every month this year. Jobs growth over the past year has been stronger in Australia than in any one of the G7 nations. Under the Abbott government, female workforce participation has reached record levels with 171,000 more women in jobs today than at the time of the 2013 election. Environmental approvals have been given to 176 projects that were stalled under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, unleashing more than $1 trillion worth of economic potential. We have introduced tax cuts, including tax cuts for small business, taking the rate of small business taxation to its lowest figure since 1967.