Mr BEAZLEY —My question is again to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, do you recall your commitment to increase the rate of job growth and to bring about a significant reduction in unemployment? Do you recall that the former Labor government created 240,000 jobs a year in its last term and that more than two million new jobs were created during our term of office? Do you accept that the budget papers forecast employment growth for the next year of only 120,000 jobs, with virtually no change in the jobless rate? Does this not expose as meaningless your undertaking to the nation?

Mr HOWARD —The answer is no, it does not. The judgment that ought to be made about any government in relation to unemployment, be it a Liberal government or a Labor government, is the judgment that is made after that government has been in for a period of time. That is the judgment that was made about you. One of the reasons why you of all people have no moral, intellectual or economic credibility in lecturing us about unemployment is that, after 13 years in government, you left this nation with an unemployment rate permanently stuck between eight or nine per cent.

The only way there can be any change at all in the bleak outlook for unemployment in this country that we inherited from you is to bring about fundamental change in the labour market and the removal of the rigidities on the supply side of the Australian economy. Every day that you hold up industrial relations reform, you are striking a blow against the unemployed in Australia.

The government has laid down in a quite impressive fashion the fiscal consolidation program. I cannot recall a budget in the last 10 to 15 years which has received a better response from the media, from commentators and from financial markets. I said in relation to the budget that, in terms of keeping commitments, we have seven or eight out of 10. I would say, in terms of economic responsibility, we have 9.99 out of 10. After that Standard and Poor's report, I think it may be entitled to a premium.

Could I very seriously say to the Leader of the Opposition that of course unemployment remains the biggest single social challenge of any government in Australia. You had 13 years to fix the problem, and you failed to fix it. We have been in office for five months. We have attended to a fiscal mess that we inherited from you, we have fixed the budget mess that we inherited, and we have kept the essential commitments that we made on which we were elected. That is a pretty impressive performance.

It is a far better performance than the first Labor budget in 1983 when every single promise you made was junked. You made no attempt to keep any of them. You junked all of them within a matter of three or four weeks. That is how disreputable you really were. Can I say to the Leader of the Opposition that if you want to make comparisons in relation to unemployment by all means you go ahead and do so, but remember that the Australian people know your form on unemployment—you have got a lot of it—and all of those people behind you have got a lot of form on unemployment.

You left us with a rate stuck between eight or nine per cent. I will be very happy to answer questions about the policies of this government in relation to unemployment come the time of the next election in three years.