Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, the member for Melbourne Ports. I thought it was a safer seat, so I promoted you. What is Labor’s response? To be fair, of course, it is difficult being a Leader of the Opposition at the worst of times, let alone at the best of times. The Leader of the Opposition’s job is difficult. It is difficult to create traction when the economy is in good shape, the budget is in the black and the government debt has been repaid. Complaints about blue skies and gentle breezes simply do not resonate. Doomsday scenarios of the sorts presented by the member for Melbourne Ports are quite readily dismissed, so this year the Leader of the Opposition has tried to find another way to try to get some traction, which is echoed by the honourable member for Melbourne Ports: he has tried to make a pact with Middle Australia.

I will not go on about the multiplicity of pacts across history, but the difficulty with the pact proposed by the Labor Party is that Middle Australia is extremely uneasy with and untrusting of the Labor Party. It has been burnt before, and Australians do have long memories. The simple fact is that, deep down, the Australian community knows that it benefits more from steady economic and employment growth, increased real wages and continued low inflation than it ever will from the Labor Party’s promises, promises which are largely unfunded.

When it comes to fiscal policy, this budget has two core elements. The first is sound economic management underpinning sustainable economic growth, low inflation, low interest rates and high employment—

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