Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Isn't it interesting. Here we are talking about the economy and talking about the budget, and yet we're not talking—not those opposite—about the fact that we should be celebrating today that we can show the lowest unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent, demonstrating that unemployment decreased by 1.1 per cent. That is a significant change and improvement in the outlook for the economy and for the budget, and for the impacts on inflation and the economy across this country. That's more than 460,000 jobs created, and yet we hear nothing about that when those opposite start talking about the economy, when what the economy is about is the impact on hardworking Australians.

As those opposite do raise, and quite rightly raise, there is deep concern about where interest rates are. They're independent decisions made by the Reserve Bank. We know that. They know that. I heard them say it often enough, sitting on this side. The economic commentators know it, and they know why the Reserve Bank rightly has its independent decision-making process. As frustrating as that is for many of us across the economy, the fact is that there is also good news today. It's something that as a country we should be celebrating—celebrating the fact that we have not only great outcomes on employment but also significant outcomes on wages. The best quarter for wage increases in 10 years under those opposite has been our worst quarter, when we've been in for only 12 months. They get the worst, the worst outcome for wages, where middle-class jobs collapse, and yet we turn around and we see the improvements that have been happening within our economy as a result of aspects and implementation of quality policy and decision-making within this budget—quite clearly, when you start looking at some of the significant figures for the impacts on the economy and inflation.

The significant impacts are also about what's happening in the economy. The number of women in full-time employment has grown by 229,000 in the past year, making up 49 per cent of total employment growth in Australia. Now, that says something about the economy. That's something that we should be celebrating. But those opposite don't care because that has never been an objective of theirs. They've never really thought about the fact that we should be bringing fair, decent, equitable wages into our economy. And, of course, women's full-time employment has grown in 11 of the last 12 months. That's how we've got the significant figure and the significant improvement. Those aspects of the economy, those figures, do need to be celebrated.

The government came to office to remove barriers that were holding women back from participation in the workforce. In the budget and through this economy, we have made significant steps to make sure that happens. We've seen the figures that prove that our objectives, our strategy and our approach are delivering the goods for so many Australians. We've delivered stronger gender pay equity. That helped with making sure that women had the right to pay equity, with better results for them. We also turned around pay transparency laws to help close the gender pay gap—critically important. These are things those opposite voted against. We're talking about impacts on the economy. Things that have actually improved in the economy, things that the government has control over, those opposite voted against. They vote against these sorts of important initiatives that mean that women have a better, more decent outcome within the Australian economy.

When you start looking at, also, the grand improvements and great improvements in the youth participation rate in the economy, it has never been higher. The significant involvement of our kids, our partners and women in the economy—the situation has never been better in regard to those indicators. Those are indicators the government does have influence, significant influence, and control over. The policies that we've been delivering have made that difference. We saw that when we committed within the budget the 15 per cent pay increase for aged-care workers and a better bargaining system to allow for secure jobs and better pay. And, for Medicare, important steps were made. These are to help deal with the effects of the decisions of the RBA and forces outside this country—the issues that have come upon us because of the Ukraine War. When you've got control over things, you make a difference. The differences are they never vote for the difference that makes it better.