Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bushby for the question. I'm delighted to advise that 2017, under this government, was a record year for job creation, with 403,100 jobs created in the calendar year of 2017. That's what the Australian people want to see. Of those 403,100 jobs, in excess of 300,000 of them were full-time jobs. That's right—full-time jobs. This is actually the biggest increase in the number of jobs since records began in 1978. This is a fantastic result for all Australians.

The interesting comparison is this: let's compare the result to the last 12 months of the former Labor government. Colleagues, under Labor, in their last 12 months, jobs growth was less than 89,000. Compare 403,000 to 89,000. Colleagues, it gets even more stark when you look at the number of full-time jobs in the last 12 months of the former Labor government. It went backwards. That's right—it went backwards by more than 18,000 jobs.

What we on this side of the chamber understand is that you've got to get the economic fundamentals right to ensure job creation. That is exactly what the Turnbull government is doing. That is why, under our government, total employment is at an all-time high, with 12.4 million Australians employed. The level of employment has increased for 15 successive months. This is another record high. We're delivering on our commitment to jobs and growth.