Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Has it really? I can never reject an invitation from the member for Denison. Last year, who could forget when the Labor Party said that they would oppose tax cuts and did oppose them to the best of their ability? This year, they support them. Members opposite say there should be more funding for families, but in the last election their shadow Treasurer wanted to abolish the $600 one-off payment to families. He did not consider it real money. The benefits that flow to local communities in an electorate such as Casey, which I represent, and in all the electorates across Australia, are very real and very tangible.

Investing in Our Schools is another program that did not exist. Last week, it was announced in Victoria, in the electorate of Casey, that 17 schools would receive individual grants of up to $150,000. What would those opposite do when they announced these? Would they say, ‘This is a program we never had the finances to introduce’? It is a program that is only possible because the Howard government has cleaned up the economic mess of the Keating-Beazley years. The difficult decisions that needed to be taken and have been taken in the last 10 years enable these new choices in the future. On child care, they have enabled the decision to remove the cap on child-care places. The out of school hours program is something that this government invented and extended and something that the families of Casey want to see expanded. They do not want government deciding where child-care places should be built. They can have the places at their local school, if that is what their local school community wishes.

This budget is a budget that delivers tangible benefits for families and business across Australia. It is a budget that has long-term reform in the Future Fund for the superannuation changes. It is a budget that will continue to see Australia’s economic prosperity remain strong. It is in stark contrast to the alternative Australians have experienced before and the alternative they would surely experience again if those opposite were ever to be in government.

See this speech in context