Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Last week we saw unemployment fall for the seventh consecutive month, to 5.1 per cent, smashing all market expectations in seeing unemployment fall to such a low level. There were 115,000 new jobs created in that month, around 85 per cent of which were full-time jobs.

Now, it's not that long ago that the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite were suggesting that the economic roof of Australia would come crashing in at the end of JobKeeper. But since the end of that program we've seen 84,000 jobs that have been added to Australia's economy. Since the peak of the pandemic, 987,000 jobs have been created, with employment now surpassing its pre-pandemic levels. The March quarter national accounts saw growth at 1.8 per cent, again beating market expectations. In fact, the last three quarters of economic growth have been the strongest in more than 50 years.