Mr LINDSAY (1:21 PM) —Mr Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention and the parliament's attention to a union television campaign for jobs. This is the AMWU's campaign in a number of marginal seats across the country called Vote 1 for Jobs. It was launched yesterday. It has been launched with the claim that little has been done by the government about the 75,000 job losses in manufacturing since 1996. Mr Deputy Speaker, you know and I know that in fact there have been no such job losses. That is absolutely wrong. Indeed, there have been 10,000 extra jobs provided in the manufacturing industry, so I think that the union's campaign is scurrilous.

Let us look at what the union are suggesting to their members. They are suggesting, `Don't vote for the government; vote for the Australian Labor Party.' What should the union members who hear that think about and realise? The first thing is something called employment. What has happened in the life of the Howard government? Eight hundred and twenty-five thousand new jobs in the country. What happened under the Labor Party? Twenty-seven thousand jobs in 13 years. If you are a worker, which government would you choose: a government that produces 825,000 new jobs or a government that only produces 27,000 new jobs? There is no choice, is there?

Let us look at workers' wages. What happened in the life of the last Labor government? Real wages went down. The union is suggesting to its members: put a government back that puts your wages down. How could they suggest that? Under the Howard government, real wages have gone up quite considerably. I think that is a proud achievement of our Prime Minister and of this government. There are other points that we ought to consider. We ought to consider things like—just small things, I know—interest rates. What happened under the previous government? Interest rates were 17 per cent under the Australian Labor Party. Workers loved that and they would want to go back to it, wouldn't they? Pigs might fly.

In relation to unemployment: 11.2 per cent unemployment under Mr Beazley, the highest since the Great Depression in this country. Here we have a union running a television campaign across marginal seats, saying to their workers, `You want to go to higher unemployment? Go back to the Australian Labor Party.' I do not think that is going to happen. I do not think that workers will see that particular situation as being at all desirable. More than that, we have seen this week independent confirmation that Labor's roll-back policy on the GST will cause a one per cent rise in interest rates if there is a $4 billion rollback. That equates to an $80 a week increase in the average family home mortgage. Here is a union recommending to its workers that they take an $80 increase in their mortgages by voting for the Australian Labor Party at the next election. I do not think so.

In my seat of Herbert, unemployment continues to fall despite the fact that the Beattie government now has the highest unemployment rate in the Commonwealth of Australia. What colour of government is the Beattie government? It is an Australian Labor Party government. Mr Beattie, with his froth and bubble smile and great personality, went to the electorate and said, `I am going to the people on the basis of a five per cent unemployment target.' The employment rate went the other way: it went up; it did not go down. There is now a nine per cent unemployment rate in Queensland. Fortunately, in Townsville and Thuringowa unemployment continues to go down. That is because we have a very alive and progressive city. I put the AMWU on notice that I am working now to secure the Yabulu extension project, which will secure the jobs at the Queensland nickel refinery at Yabulu and will also bring on stream a new nickel processing plant in Western Australia which will feed stock to the Yabulu plant. We have to make sure that the Yabulu extension project gets up—and people will understand what this union campaign is about.

Main Committee adjourned at 1.26 p.m.