Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have a government that has increased unemployment since it came to office two years ago from 5.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent, a 13-year high. We had the extraordinary situation on the Insiders program where the trade minister, Minister Robb, spoke about the achievements of this government and actually cited employment—which has really been a failure. When the government's defence is that it could have been worse or that it should have been worse, that is no defence at all. For the first time in 20 years more than 800,000 Australians are out of work—800,000.