Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. Can the minister inform the Senate about how the government has been assisting Australian workers and families with the cost of learning since coming to office? In particular, can the minister inform the Senate about how the government’s economic management has been helping Australians to find and remain in employment?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the good senator from Western Australia for the question. This is a government that understands that a strong economy is the foundation of prosperity, the foundation of fairness for Australian workers and Australian families. This is a government that understands that a strong economy enables opportunity and that we have to create prosperity in order for it to be shared. We also understand that part of strong and sensible economic management is sensible fiscal policy, which is why we have in place these strict fiscal rules that I have outlined previously.

A strong economy has enabled the government to deliver policies that benefit Australian workers and families since coming to office. We know that central to dealing with things such as cost-of-living pressures, which do exist, is as strong economy. And why is that, Mr President? It is because a strong economy means more jobs and better wages.

Let us look at what has happened when it comes to employment in this country since we were elected to government. This government has kept Australia out of recession. It has created more than 650,000 jobs since coming to office, with the unemployment rate at 5.4 per cent and participation rate at their highest levels. With unemployment in the United States and Europe at near or just over 10 per cent, that gives you some sense of the achievements of the government. This is a government that has also introduced better working conditions. We got rid of Work Choices and introduced the Fair Work Act, delivering more fairness to the workplace and a more balanced industrial relations system. We have introduced paid parental leave.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Senate about the importance of fairness in developing policies that assist Australian workers and Australian families?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A strong economy enables us to assist Australian families. It enables us to ensure that opportunity and prosperity can be fairly shared and, as I was saying in my first answer, some of the ways this government does this is by keeping Australia out of recession, keeping Australians in jobs and introducing a fair workplace relations system. We got rid of Work Choices, we introduced the Fair Work Act and we introduced paid parental leave. Paid parental leave is something many women, and men, in the labour movement have been fighting for for many years. It took a Labor government to introduce paid parental leave. As we approached an election, we had Mr Tony-come-lately when it came to paid parental leave. But it took Labor people, the labour movement and a Labor government to deliver fully funded paid parental leave.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Senate whether she is aware of any alternative approaches to assisting working Australians and working families?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it comes to alternative policies and alternative approaches to assisting working families and working Australians, let me tell you: on that side of the chamber there are none. I rarely agree with Mr Ciobo, but I notice it was reported today that Mr Ciobo said that the opposition did only half the job when it defined itself by what it was opposed to. There are a lot of half men and women on that side of the chamber. They are half the men and half the women they ought to be. These are the people who pretend to be an alternative government, and all they can do is wreck, block and oppose. They have no alternative policies—no policies around opportunities and fairness; just opposition. (Time expired)