Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (11:14): Sometimes you see in soccer an own goal, and that is what this motion is from the hapless member for Charlton—it is simply an own goal. We are quite happy to talk about unemployment—how we are improving it and compare it to the disastrous term of the previous Labor government. I can imagine the member for Charlton sitting down last Thursday preparing his speech on this motion. Unfortunately, the ABS numbers came out last Thursday and they showed that in May there were 42,000 new jobs created in the economy. I can imagine the member for Charlton kicking the cat at such bad news. There were 42,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate is down to six per cent. It is still too high but it is down to six per cent. Mr Albanese: Unemployment was less—it was less under us. Mr CRAIG KELLY: I hear the member for Grayndler interjecting. I remember that when he was sitting on this side of the chamber his last forecast was that at this time unemployment would be 6.25 per cent. The member for Grayndler should give us a round of applause because we have unemployment much lower than what was anticipated and forecast when he was running the show. Now that we are running the show we are a quarter of a per cent under. This government is out creating jobs. Mr Albanese: You are opposed to jobs. Mr CRAIG KELLY: The member for Grayndler seeks to intervene. I remind him of his record when he was sitting on this side of the chamber. There were 200,000 jobs lost. When the member for Grayndler was running the show the unemployment queue was increased by 200,000. You could fill the MCG twice with the number of people who joined the unemployment queue under the member for Grayndler's policies. Mr Albanese: It's not true. Mr CRAIG KELLY: The member for Grayndler says it is not true. I have a copy of the ABS figures here. I am happy to give them to the member for Grayndler so he can see the numbers. The ABS figures show that the unemployment queues of this country lengthened by 200,000 under the previous Labor Party. Let us compare that to the previous Howard and Costello coalition government. They inherited $96 billion worth of debt and deficit. They paid back that $96 billion of debt and $54 billion worth of interest along the way, they put $40 billion in the Future Fund and they had a surplus of $20 billion. On top of that they reduced the unemployment queues of this country by 300,000 people. The previous Labor government increased those same queues by another 200,000. Most affected were small businesses. The numbers do not lie—there were 519,000 jobs lost in small business under a Labor government. It is interesting to dig down into the ABS numbers because of the stories they tell. They show the contrast between New South Wales, which has a coalition government that gets on with the job and allows the private sector to get on with it, and Victoria, which has a Labor government that ties things up in red tape, breaks contracts and lets the CFMEU and their union mates run over the place. Let us have a look at what the ABS numbers for the last two months show for New South Wales and Victoria. In the past two months New South Wales created 35,200 jobs. That was a pretty good effort from the coalition government in New South Wales. How about our friends down in Victoria, where the Labor government is in charge? How many jobs did they create? Not even one. There has been a decline of 1,400 jobs. So New South Wales has put on 35,200 jobs and Victoria, where we have a Labor government in control, has lost 1,400 jobs. History repeats over and over again. Whenever you have a Labor government in control, which thinks it is big government and big unions that control jobs, we see jobs lost. Whenever we have a coalition government, which understands that government does not create jobs but it is small business and entrepreneurs that create jobs, we see job creation in this country happen, and that is what we are seeing now. This government is well on the way to creating one million new jobs. We are going to work hard. We are going to get the unemployment numbers down and continue to decrease the unemployment queues of this country. Debate adjourned.