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

We haven't given up on any jobs. But—you know what—we're not living in a socialist-command controlled economy. Jobs are generated by businesses around Australia, not by government. The Prime Minister is just being honest with the Australian people. I remember a former Prime Minister who said something pretty similar in an interview with Kerry O'Brien. I think his name was Paul Keating. He was asked about all the jobs that were lost when tariffs were reduced. 'What do you think about that?' He said, 'There are more new and better jobs as a result of economic reform.' What we are focused on is more new and better jobs.

There will be some jobs which will not come back, and it will be better for the Australian people if they can find genuine, good-quality jobs in a strongly recovering economy on the other side. That is of course what everyone in this chamber should want to see. We can't be looking backwards. Sadly what has happened has happened. It has been devastating. It has been difficult. Some businesses, sadly, will not be able to recover. That is a fact of life. We cannot pretend and lie to the Australian people; we will not do that. You go right ahead and pretend to the Australian people that, through government edict, through socialist policies, you can somehow preserve every job in the economy, no matter what. That is not the truth. In a free market economy, genuine jobs will be created by genuine, viable, profitable businesses, and that is what we want to see on the other side: successful, profitable businesses that will hire more Australians again, businesses that have the confidence to invest in their future success because they know that the framework is right to get us to the other side of this crisis. We should never pretend to the Australian people that somehow governments can artificially protect every single job in the economy in the context of the sort of crisis that we've just dealt with. Just think about it, reflect on it. Paul Keating understood this; clearly you guys have gone so far to the left that even Paul Keating would be ashamed of you now.