Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that question, Senator Macdonald. It's a very important question. It is one of the most important things for our side of politics, because in this place we need to make sure the economy works for everyone, not just the people in the big cities and not just the people who currently have jobs. We need to move people into jobs. Since 2013, we've created over a million jobs. They are new jobs. There was a record 400,000 jobs created thanks to our policies. We are job creating with a $75 billion, decade-long pipeline of transport infrastructure. That is going to support 50,000 jobs. There are record investments in the defence industry and supporting small jobs in small business. With the recently announced Future Submarine program, that's 2,800 new jobs. Our tax cuts mean that Australian businesses can keep more of their own money to reinvest back into the economy. Those 400,000 new jobs compare to just 89,000 new jobs in the 12 months before we came to government. It was 89,000—what a pathetic record.

Importantly, these jobs are being created right across the country, particularly in the bush. Our Community Development Program has created 26,000 jobs. Many of those 26,000 jobs are for the most disadvantaged jobseekers in Australia. We suffered so badly under those opposite's RJCP. At the end of their program, only seven per cent of the participants were showing up. We have now got 71 per cent over 26,000 jobs. Take our own program: there were 22,900 jobs that were all about getting people off the misery of welfare and into the dignity of work. How can we afford to have these job-creating investments? It's because we brought the budget back under control and more people on to the taxpayer side of the ledger.