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

I thank Senator Hume for that very important question. Yes, I can. When we came to government in September 2013, the Australian economy was weakening, unemployment was rising and the budget position was rapidly deteriorating. Today, economic growth in Australia is stronger than in any of the G7 economies. In the 2017 calendar year, we had more than 400,000 new jobs created in the Australian economy. The news doesn't end there. In regional Australia, 120,000 jobs were created over the last year, outpacing growth in the working age population by nearly two to one. The participation rate is 0.9 per cent higher than 12 months ago. The female participation rate is over 60 per cent, an all-time high. There are now 511,700 more Australians in jobs created over the last two years.

Senator Cameron interjecting—

Senator Cameron doesn't like to listen to this positive economic news. He knows that if Labor is in government sometime in the future, all of that would go downhill because they would impose higher taxes and more red tape and be less sympathetic to open markets and free trade.

Today we had the release of the ANZ jobs index, which shows that job advertisements have increased by 6.2 per cent in January to be 13.8 per cent higher over the past year. It is very obvious that our plan for jobs and growth is working. But we haven't got a plan for jobs and growth from the Labor Party. All we get from the Labor Party is the politics of envy, higher taxes and more negativity.

Business conditions sit at 13 per cent up. This is well above the long-run average of plus five. Business confidence showed a strong increase to be at plus 11 points and remains well above the long-run average. Capital expenditure expectations are at plus nine points after a very strong result for November, at plus 14 points. Australia's exports are up 6.4 per cent compared to a year ago. These are all things that the Labor Party is not interested in. (Time expired)