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

Thank you, Senator Paterson, for that very important question. Yes, indeed, I can.

As Senator Paterson knows, despite global economic headwinds our economy grew by three per cent in the most recently reported 12-month period. That is twice the rate of Canada, a comparable resource-based economy, and better than any of the G7 economies. It is better than the OECD average and it is much better than when we came to government, when the economy had grown by just two per cent in the previous 12 months and when the unemployment rate was on the up and up.

By contrast, the unemployment rate fell in March to 5.7 per cent and over 440,000 jobs have been created in the 30 months since this government came to office. That compares with jobs growth of 246,000 over the previous 30 months, during the period of Labor government. This is an improvement in the rate of jobs growth of almost 80 per cent, compared to the disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period.

But it is no accident; it is the result of the government creating opportunities for businesses to invest and to employ more Australians. We have created these opportunities through our ambitious export agenda, including the signing of historic free trade agreements as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Our ambitious defence agenda has seen investments made in Australian warships and submarines that will create and sustain thousands of Australian jobs for years to come—for decades to come.

We have gotten rid of Labor's carbon tax and mining tax. We stopped their attack on truckies and we are supporting the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission to improve productivity on construction projects. We reduced taxes for small business, with further efforts to make our tax system more growth-friendly to be delivered in the budget tonight. (Time expired)