Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

We are always focused on the issues that the Australian people care about. Let me tell you something. When Labor lost government in 2013, a lot of Australians were not able to find a job. In fact, the number of Australians not able to find a job was on the up—and up and up. But today, after five years of Liberal-National government, we are able to point to more than 1.1 million new jobs having been created—including 350,000 new jobs in 2017-18, which was 150,000 more new jobs than we had anticipated when we delivered the 2017-18 budget. That, of course, has helped to drive a significantly improved budget performance, with an improvement in the budget bottom line to the tune of about $19.3 billion because 150,000 more Australians paid personal income tax and 150,000 more Australians didn't pay the same level of welfare they otherwise would have. This is the virtuous economic cycle that we— (Time expired)