Mr CREAN —I direct my question to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, I refer to your continued refusal to set an unemployment target. Are you aware that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Bernie Fraser, today said, `I don't see any reason why we couldn't be aiming to get' (unemployment) `down to five or six per cent'?

Mr Costello —By when?

Mr CREAN —By the end of the decade.

Mr Costello —He did not say that.

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —Order! The Treasurer!

Mr CREAN —If Mr Fraser thinks it is possible and your employment department gave you advice saying it was possible, why won't you commit to a five per cent unemployment rate by the end of the decade that will give real hope to jobless Australians?

Mr HOWARD —Could I start by saying that the member for Hotham has quite deliberately, quite knowingly and quite dishonestly misquoted the Governor of the Reserve Bank. The second part of my answer is to repeat a comment made some time ago—in fact, three years ago—by somebody, who said:

Our commitment, as a government and as a nation, should not be to any arbitrary unemployment number or rate.

Not to any arbitrary unemployment number or rate.

Our commitment must be to the reduction of unemployment as rapidly and as completely as possible.

They, of course, were the words of the now Leader of the Opposition, the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training.

Can I say to those opposite again—and to use the words of the then minister, the now Leader of the Opposition—the commitment is to the reduction of unemployment as rapidly and as completely as possible. That can be facilitated when, to start with, the Senate passes the workplace relations bill, a bill which will produce flexibility in the labour market. Mr Evans, the man appointed by the former Keating government and reappointed by the incoming Howard government as the principal economic adviser to both governments, sees the link between a freer labour market and the level of unemployment. Many commentators and observers see that link.

I say to those sitting opposite that you can ask these questions as frequently as you like, but it will not alter two absolutely unassailable facts. The first of those facts is that the high level of unemployment that we now suffer is a direct result of Labor's failed policies. That is point No. 1. The second point is that, until the new policies of the new government are in operation—and, specifically, are allowed to be in operation—the Labor party will continue to carry the moral and political responsibility for Australia's high level of unemployment.