Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Greenway for that very important question, because in the next 24 hours every member of this chamber will have the opportunity to stand up for working families and for small businesses in their electorate. If they do not, they will simply abandon them to cheap politics. Putting in place the MRRT is the way in which we can spread the opportunities of the mining boom to every corner of our country. It is a way in which we can ensure the resources the Australian people own 100 per cent are spread right around our country instead of just being sent overseas to overseas shareholders. This is a way in which all Australians share in the bounty of the mining boom. That is very important because it goes to the essence of what we are on about in this chamber and that is the creation of jobs in Australia. There is nothing that we on this side of the House are prouder of than the fact that we have created, over the past four years, 750,000 jobs in this country. We are proud of that. It is in our DNA. That is what the electorates send us here for—to put in place job creation.

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