JOURNALIST: In regards to the Merrill Lynch latest report that was released in the last few days with prospects of over 6 per cent unemployment and 100,000 job losses. Are these figures surprising?
WONG: When were talking about employment, we should remember where weve been. Australias unemployment rate by comparison with most other advanced economies is very, very good. The US, for example, is in excess of 9 per cent unemployment. So by comparison ours is very good.
Youll also recall that this Government has made jobs a priority. The reason we intervened to put stimulus into the economy was to support jobs. We did do that, and as a result there were 200,000 Australians who stayed in work, who would not otherwise had been if we had followed what Tony Abbott had wanted to do.
JOURNALIST: Nonetheless, with these job losses, and whats happening in the manufacturing sector at present, are you concerned by these figures?
WONG: Obviously the patchwork economy is a reality. Everyone is obviously upset about the job losses that were announced yesterday at BlueScope. Whats important is to work through what policies are required.
And thats why its important to support the mining tax, to ensure that the proceeds from that can be used for the benefit of the broader economy, to reduce the company tax rate. That helps the competitive environment for many of these businesses doing it tough. Its a pity the Opposition, who are so negative, cant see the benefit of this.
JOURNALIST: The unemployment rate is generally a good indicator of longer term trends in the economy, rather than month to month.
Are you concerned that weve reached a peak in terms of employment? Because it was at an eight month high, now weve had the BlueScope announcement. There are concerns that mining isnt hiring as much as was expected, and weve got a very high dollar. Have we got through as good as it gets and were down the other side now?
WONG: The Governments focus needs to be on what we have to do to strengthen our economy, to deal with the patchwork pressures that weve spoken about, to implement the mining tax, but also to invest in our people.
And lets remember one of the best ways in which you can support the competitiveness of the Australian economy, is to do what were doing, which is invest in universities, invest in vocational education, make training more responsive to business, and increase the skill levels of Australian workers. So we do have the opportunity to leverage the possibilities that the continued growth in Asia presents to Australia.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident those jobs can be absorbed into other areas of the economy, such as mining, or, what would you see as a key policy to ensure those job losses are absorbed?
WONG: I think the key policy question is how do you best leverage the benefits of the mining boom across the Australian economy, and how do you position Australia for the future. And weve got an enormous shift in the global economy. Thats going to bring with it a lot of challenges but a lot of possibilities for us. And its disappointing that we see the Opposition talking down the economy, rather than working out what it is we need to do to position Australia for the future.
JOURNALIST: What is that though? What would be key?
WONG: I think the things that the Government is doing, that is, investing the proceeds of the mining boom into the policies that weve announced lower tax rates, more superannuation, infrastructure, to invest in our people. These are the sorts of things that we need to do.
JOURNALIST: Just a separate question the ongoing issue with Mr Thomson. How difficult is this becoming for the Government?
WONG: On that issue, there is an investigation thats been underway for some time. I think its appropriate that we allow that investigation to proceed.
JOURNALIST: You continue to support him?
WONG: Mr Thomson is a very hard working member for his electorate and hes a valued member of caucus.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask one question on the international economy. Central bankers are meeting in the US later this week, I think it is. Does the US need to undertake a new round of quantitative easing? Basically, if I could talk more generally then is the US doing enough to tackle its problems?
WONG: On US monetary policy, I suspect there is probably enough people in the United States working on that rather than me commenting. More broadly, I think, obviously the US has a range of fiscal challenges it needs to deal with. Thats obviously been a subject of discussion between the President and the Congress. Its important for the world I think that the US continues to work to address its fiscal issues. Obviously, we in Australia have been very fortunate in terms of our public finances being so strong and our net debt being so low comparatively in comparison to the rest of the world.
JOURNALIST: There are risks that spill over, arent there? And that global growth could be affected by all these problems in the US and Europe which does in turn affect Australia?
WONG: I think all of us understand theres a lot of volatility in global markets, there are a lot of challenges in the US and in Europe. But we face those challenges with a lot of strength.
Lets remember them. Weve got very strong public finances, our banking system is well regulated, well capitalised. Weve got a big mining boom bringing investment into the country. And we have relatively low unemployment, so all of these things enable Australia to face those challenges with a lot of strength behind them.
ENDS