Labor falls short on job creation

19/01/12

The ABS Labour Force figures released today show no new jobs have been created over the past year and reinforces that now is the worst time to introduce the world's biggest carbon tax.

Since October some 37 000 jobs have been lost within the Australian economy, leaving the number of people employed in December slightly less than a year ago.

This makes a mockery of Wayne Swan’s claim on Budget Night that his Budget ‘centrepiece’ was about ‘jobs, jobs and jobs’. [Wayne Swan, Press Conference, Budget Lock-up, 10 May 2011] These figures do not include the latest rounds of pending job cuts announced by some of Australia’s largest employers.

Furthermore they do not include the impacts of Labor’s job destroying carbon and mining taxes.

The government must immediately act to restore confidence and jobs by repealing the carbon and mining taxes and cutting wasteful spending to return the Budget to surplus.