STEVE PRICE:
The unemployment rate has gone up, it now sits at 5.4 per cent, up 0.3 of a per cent. David Bradbury's the Assistant Treasurer. We need to find another way to measure this, don't we?
DAVID BRADBURY:
Good afternoon Steve. Good to be with you.
PRICE:
It just doesn't make sense. How can the rate go up and yet we've found 14,000 extra jobs?
BRADBURY:
Look, the key driver of the increase in the rate is an increased participation rate. And what that means is that there are more people now actively seeking work and the percentage of unemployment is measured as a percentage of the overall number of people that are either in the workforce or actively seeking work. So, if you have the number of people out there looking for work increase, then you could actually have an increase in jobs, as we have had here, and the percentage does increase as well. It's one of those that you've got to, there are lies, damn lies and statistics, you've got to look through the statistics to try and understand what they truly mean. In this case, what we've seen is we've seen an increase in full time employment with an extra 32,100 jobs. Now that's been partly offset by a drop in part time jobs, which are down 17,700. But in net terms, we're in the ballpark of 14-15,000 jobs have been created. So, it's against the backdrop of more people out there looking for work.
PRICE:
And I think it's been driven by more women getting work. 32,100 were injected into the workforce. The number of unemployed though you'd still not be happy about that. 662,700 people in September couldn't find a job in this country. That seems very high.
BRADBURY:
I guess you could look at this in terms of comparisons with historically what we faced in this country, you can look at it in terms of comparisons with what's happening around the world. I think the point that I would make…
PRICE:
History is a better comparison.
BRADBURY:
History is a good comparison and I guess historically 5.4 per cent is still a pretty strong labour market by historic standards.
PRICE:
What's the figure now, David, that's referred to we're basically in full employment? At what level? Under five?
BRADBURY:
I think once you get down in the fours, you're starting to approach what most economists would consider to be full employment.
PRICE:
Have you got a state-by-state breakdown yet or are they out next week?
BRADBURY:
There are some details there around the states.
PRICE:
How'd our state go?
BRADBURY:
Well, NSW is up by 13,300 jobs but significantly, the two states that have gone backwards, and the state that's had the biggest decrease has been Queensland and obviously the changes that are occurring in the public sector there are having a big impact.
PRICE:
Well, that would be having an even bigger impact when you take October into account next month, won't it?
BRADBURY:
Yeah, well 20,900 jobs have been lost in Queensland. So if you look at the national figures, Queensland is really accounting for the largest proportion of the lost jobs that's occurring at the moment.
PRICE:
Were you at that dinner last night?
BRADBURY:
I was, I was Steve.
PRICE:
Did you leave before that crude remark about Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin was made?
BRADBURY:
No, I didn't leave before it and not immediately after it.
PRICE:
Did you hear it?
BRADBURY:
I did hear it. It was a comment that I thought was in bad taste and to be honest, it was one of those ones, and I've been to plenty of functions where comedians get up and I think it was what you'd describe as a clanger. It didn't go down very well with people.
PRICE:
Should it be treated any differently than the chaff bag, singing, Young Liberals dinner?
BRADBURY:
Look, I'll let other people judge that. I think individuals will have their own view about that. But the point from my perspective was that Wayne Swan…
PRICE:
The noise out of the earlier dinner was remarkable, as you know.
BRADBURY:
I think it's important, there's a couple of important comparisons to make, and one is that the Prime Minister took action as soon as she became, she wasn't there at the time this statement was made.
PRICE:
It's difficult isn't it David, because you have been going very hard on Tony Abbott's so called misogyny and his sexism and yet a union funded dinner makes a remark about a senior Liberal office holder, female. It just makes you guys as bad as anyone else.
BRADBURY:
Can I say within the last six months I've been to another function where a comedian got up, there were other Liberal politicians in the room, a pretty nasty comment was made about the Prime Minister, not in the same order of magnitude as what we saw from Alan Jones, did I get up and walk out of that? Well, no I didn't because I wasn't there to hear the comedian, I was there for the particular group that I'd gone to hear. In this case, I was there, I wanted to hear the keynote address from Wayne Swan.
PRICE:
Maybe we all need a bit more respect for everybody.
BRADBURY:
I would definitely agree with you on that front. I think one of the challenges that we always have is striking a balance between, one of the great things about Australia I think is I can be out walking down my main street of Penrith and people come up and have a yarn to you. But equally, with the privilege of that access, and there are plenty of countries where that doesn't happen, with that access sometimes people will come and just have a crack at you and say some pretty offensive things.
PRICE:
Some verbal abuse.
BRADBURY:
It's also about free speech. So there is a balancing act that has to be struck.
PRICE:
Just before I let you go, did the Coalition try and woo the vote of Craig Thomson?
BRADBURY:
Well, look, clearly they did. If you look at the written document, the letter that was sent from Senator Cormann to Craig Thomson, clearly they were seeking his vote. But I think it does actually raise a bigger issue. Mr Abbott is out there saying Craig Thomson's vote is tainted, he's saying that Peter Slipper and his conduct has been in the same order of magnitude there but for some reason his vote is not tainted but Craig Thomson's is tainted. You know, I think it's a bit of a [inaudible]. I think in the end, the people that are in this Parliament are elected there by their local communities. Until such time as they cease to have the capacity to turn up to the Parliament and to exercise their vote on behalf of their communities, people really need to stop the carry on about I'll accept this person's vote, I won't accept that person's vote. We saw that in the past with Mal Colston, how the then government, they we're prepared to accept his vote when it counted but they spent a lot of time saying they weren't prepared to accept it. So I think people have just got to be a bit fair dinkum.
PRICE:
Alright David, thanks for your time.
BRADBURY:
Thanks Steve.