Stimulus created 112,000 jobs: Rudd

The federal government's economic stimulus resulted in the creation of 112,000 jobs
last year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told parliament.
In other major economies around the world millions of jobs were lost, he said.
"In the past year we have created 112,000 jobs.
"As we look around at the rest of the world's data, in America in the same period of
time, 5.8 million jobs were lost."
Mr Rudd was marking the first anniversary of Labor's $42 billion stimulus program.
He recalled what happened in previous global recessions.
In the early 1980s Australia's unemployment rate peaked at 10.4 per cent, while in
the recession of the early 1990s the jobless rate reached 10.9 per cent.
"We have kept unemployment so far at 5.5 - 5.8 per cent," Mr Rudd said.
The result was the consequence of a government intervening through a national
economic stimulus infrastructure strategy, Mr Rudd said.
The alternative, proposed by the opposition, was to pull $20 billion out of the
infrastructure stimulus strategy, he said.
The prime minister challenged the opposition to name the 5,000 schools projects that
would be impacted by a withdrawal of the stimulus and where work had not yet
commenced.
Treasurer Wayne Swan said Australia had achieved something "special" in the past 12
months.
"Twelve months ago our economy was on the brink of a recession," he told parliament.
"We were then facing the bleak prospect of one million Australians being out of work."
"But a combination of stimulus and the resilience and hard work of the Australian
people and businesses has meant we have avoided a recession."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Kevin Rudd knows all too well that his
government's glory days are gone.
Mr Abbott was responding to the prime minister's speech to mark the first birthday
of the $42 billion stimulus spending package.
Mr Abbott described the 20 minute speech as a "long sermon of self congratulation,"
by "Saint Kevin of Canberra".
Mr Rudd spoke about the past because he was frightened of the future, Mr Abbott said.
"The prime minister's speech was very, very redolent of a government already in
decline," Mr Abbott told parliament.
"This is a government that is already conscious of the fact that it has past its
prime, this is a government whose glory days are gone."
He also offered some election advice to Mr Rudd, who had already left the chamber.
"Voters don't like...prime minister's who look to pleased with themselves," he said,
adding that Mr Rudd sees himself as the "messiah of economic policy" here to save
the nation from "all the plagues of the apocalypse."
"They don't like government's that are talking about...what they did for voters last
year rather than what they might do for voters this year."
Mr Abbott said the saved jobs came at a cost to taxpayers of $400,000 each, and only
a small minority of stimulus projects had been completed.