Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Twenty-one thousand people—dead people—received cheques from those opposite. And would you believe: in 2012-13, a number of years after the global financial crisis, some 12,000 people kept receiving their $900 cheques.

There was the carbon tax on which the then Leader of the Opposition, Julia Gillard, went to the Australian people and said: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Then there was the mining tax, which we were promised would bring in $49½ billion and produced just $340 million worth of revenue.

Then there were the boats. We were told by those opposite that they would also stop the boats. They gave us an $11 billion budget blow-out when it came to the boats—there were more than 50,000 unauthorised arrivals and, tragically, more than 1,000 people lost their lives at sea.

Then we saw the red tape, when those opposite said there would be one in, one out. We saw 21,000 additional regulations from those opposite.

Then we had the NBN, which had just started—a $4.7 billion infrastructure project—and then we had an independent analysis find that it had blown out by $29 billion. After just six years of the Labor government, the rollout was only three per cent and less than 100,000 Australians had access to the NBN.

Then we had the free trade agreements which we were told would eventuate with China, Korea and Japan. None of them did, under the Labor Party. It took us to deliver the free trade agreements.

Then we had the commitment from those opposite that they would protect the defence of our nation and support our soldiers and our men and women in uniform. But, under the Labor Party, we saw defence spending fall to just 1.56 per cent—the lowest level since 1938.

Then we had the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, go to the Australian people and to the region and say, 'I will create an Asia-Pacific community, because this will allow me to grandstand and to promote my best interests at the expense of Australia's best interests.' And what happened? That never eventuated because those in the region were never consulted.

Then we had, in health, the commitment to 64 superclinics—

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