Senator TROETH (2:13 PM) —My question is to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister For Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the Senate on the latest national employment figures? Has the minister seen reports that senior union figures tried to prevent discussion of these record low unemployment figures at the International Labor Organisation’s meeting in Switzerland, and what is the government’s response?

Senator ABETZ (Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) —I thank Senator Troeth for her question. I note that it is a mainstream issue she is inquiring about, and I also note her genuine and ongoing advocacy of policies which will provide more of our fellow Australians with a job opportunity. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures which show that Australia’s unemployment rate has now fallen to a new 33-year low of 4.2 per cent. Significantly, these figures show that, since the introduction of our current workplace relations system in March last year, more than 358,700 new jobs have been created and a massive 94.8 per cent of those are full time.

I have noted that in recent days we have seen the trade unions, in a despicable attempt to score cheap political points, try to blacken Australia’s name at the International Labour Organisation. Even more disturbingly, during the subsequent debate on our industrial relations system the ACTU tried to gag our Australian official when he spoke about our job creation record. Believe it or not, the ACTU representative made the startling claim that jobs growth was not relevant to a discussion of the current industrial relations system. I wonder if Mr Rudd would agree with that approach. The fact is that for 23 months, nearly two years, unemployment in this country has oscillated between five and 5.3 per cent. It took the current workplace relations system for unemployment to crack the five per cent barrier—and it has just kept on falling. I table a table which shows the oscillation and also the huge decline since March 2006. What is bizarre is that the ACTU did not want these figures to be discussed because they said it was irrelevant. I then decided to have a look at the ILO convention myself. Article 1 of the Employment Policy Convention, adopted in 1994—let me read it for those opposite—states:

that is, member country, such as Australia—

So the ILO convention itself demands of its members that they seek to create employment, yet the ACTU, in its desperate attempt to blacken our industrial relations policies, did not seek to allow Australia’s representative to argue the case. What they did seek to do was to link Australia with countries such as Colombia, where 100,000 children are sent down the mines each day. They are trying to make that sort of comparison. It is a dishonest comparison, it is an unfair comparison and, of course, it is motivated by the likes of Doug Cameron, now a Labor Senate candidate, who has said that what he wanted to do was to defeat the Howard government at the next election and have the ALP implement the ACTU policy—and Mr Rudd has not repudiated it. (Time expired)