Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very interested to talk on this MPI, and it is really interesting to hear the member for Shortland and the member for Chisholm and every other member over on that side who just spoke—apart from the member for Scullin, as a new member—saying that there are broken promises. These members are the same members who went into the last election, in 2010, and said there would be no carbon tax. And the people in the gallery and the people reading this at home know exactly what happened there. They went into the 2007 election under Kevin Rudd and said they were economic conservatives. They said they would not change the Pacific solution. And what did we see? Mass changes.

But we know that every time the opposition gets the chance to have an MPI they come into this place and want to talk about the budget, they want to talk about jobs and they want to talk about costs of living. I am just amazed when the opposition wants to talk about budgets. One of the things that inspired me to run to represent the people of Petrie and make a contribution in this place was the disastrous six years of Labor and the six budgets they delivered that left billions of dollars in deficits that Australian children will have to pay for generations to come. And they want to talk about budgets in their MPI!

We have the opposition leader, Mr Bill Shorten, who says in his newsletter, 'We're delivering surpluses'. Yet today in question time, what did we hear? There was not a surplus; there was never a surplus under Labor. In fact, the current Treasurer revealed today that there was a $48.5 billion deficit, after Labor promised time and time again that there would be a surplus. So, if you want to talk about budgets, we are happy to talk about budgets. We promised the Australian people a strong, prosperous economy and a safe and secure Australia, and we are working towards delivering surpluses. And we are working not just towards delivering surpluses but also paying off Labor's debt, and that is what we will continue to do. Part of our plan with that, of course, revolves around jobs and revolves around cost of living. We know we want to create more jobs, and that is what we are endeavouring to do.

In my electorate of Petrie, where we have a higher level of youth unemployment. That is why in our last budget one of the great things we did was bring back Work for the Dole, after Labor once again scrapped it. And why did we do that? I will tell you why. I have been out visiting our Work for the Dole sites in the last couple of weeks, and the reason we did that is that there are people who are out of work and cannot get a job, and one of the things they say to me is, 'I go for an interview and people want some experience'. Employers are looking for someone who is proactive and actually wants some experience. Work for the Dole should be looked upon in a positive light, not a negative light. I would say to every member opposite that if you have a Work for the Dole program in your electorate I would encourage you go out and visit the people involved in that program. Talk to them. Find out what it is that they want to do in life and encourage them to achieve it, to do their best.

I was recently out at the PCYC in my electorate. There were five or six work-for-the-dole participants there. They were building a new deck, they were painting the walls and they were installing a new kitchen. I said to them, 'This is great stuff, guys, really positive, because at your next job interview, you can say to that future employer: "I have not been sitting around at home and applying for jobs; I have actually been helping not-for-profit groups and updating my skills. I am learning to build a new deck and picking up carpentry skills and I am learning cabinetry skills by helping install a new kitchen."'

So there are a whole lot of things we have delivered in this budget, including working for the dole and reducing red tape—because we understand that it is businesses that employ people in this country. We have the Restart program for older workers. We will continue to be positive. We have restored defence spending as well. I noticed that members opposite talked about defence spending. The member for Brisbane came in and said that, when they were in government, they cut defence spending. You are dead right, Member for Brisbane—you cut it by $16 billion! They cut defence spending by $16 billon, yet they want to talk about building boats in Adelaide—$16 billion would have gone a long way towards that. The coalition will continue to deliver a strong, prosperous economy and a safe and secure Australia. I urge the opposition to support our policies for the benefit of this nation.

See this speech in context