Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Who said that? The member for Lilley. The member for Lilley was so good at his job that it quickly went to the member for McMahon. Who remembers that? We certainly remember that on our side. If you talk about false hopes and about expectations that are never met, that is the best example. The member for McMahon knows so much that he is texting the member for Lilley just to check that everything is true.

The members on this side know two things: firstly, they know what a failure the Labor side was; and, secondly, they know how significant our achievements have been in less than a year and a half in office. They know we are not shirking the challenge of budget repair. We are not shirking that challenge because we know that if we do so we would be as bad as you in that game of intergenerational theft—the game in which you left a bill of $25,000 for every man, woman and child in Australia as a result of your debt bill. So let's remember: when those opposite inherited the Australian balance sheet, there was zero government debt. When we inherited it we were fast on a trajectory of $667 billion of debt—an interest bill of $1 billion a month. As the Treasurer has pointed out to this House, we are now borrowing and spending $100 million a day more than we are taking as revenue. And $40 million of that $100 million is just going to the interest payments on Labor's debt bill. That is the legacy they have left us in addition to 400,000 jobs being lost in small business, a rotisserie of small-business ministers—six in just the same number of years—the Pink Batts and the school halls fiascos.

So far everyone seems to forget what a job we have done in stopping the boats. Not only did we save thousands of lives at sea but also we saved the taxpayer over $10 billion, because that would have been the bill if it was business as usual as it occurred under Labor's watch. Of course, they gave us a mining tax, which was expected to produce $26½ billion in revenue. And do you know what it produced in revenue? Just over $300 million—less than three per cent of the expectation after the ATO had spent $50 million in administering it. They gave us a carbon tax, which was hit on the average Australian family of $550 a year. They reduced Defence spending to its lowest level since 1938. They took money, as the foreign minister has reminded us, from the aid budget to help fill the gap in their border protection policies. And, of course, on the NBN they turned what should have been a nation-building project into an expensive white elephant which was out of time and out of budget. So that is the record of those opposite.

When we came to government the adults were back in charge, and we commissioned a Commission of Audit. We got a respected businessman in Tony Shepherd to tell us what really needed to be done. And he laid out a blueprint for reform. The hard reform was to bridge that structural deficit—the gap between spending and receipts—that this Labor opposition had left us after their time in government. He pointed out that in Australia we face an ageing population where currently we have five working Australians to every single retired Australia but by mid this century that ratio will fall from five to one to 2.7 to one. We cannot afford to have health spending go from $8 billion 10 years ago for Medicare to $20 billion today and to $34 billion in just a few years time when only half of that $20 billion is coming from the Medicare levy. We just cannot afford the increasing cost of an ageing population without tightening our belts and without getting smaller and more efficient government. So what have we done? We have done exactly that. As a result of our reforms, the government's debt will be $170 billion less than it would have been under Labor in 10 years time. The interest bill will be significantly lower so more money could be spent on roads, hospitals and schools.

We have gone on with the job of microeconomic reform, particularly deregulation. We have taken 57,000 pages out of the statute books, significantly reducing the red tape burden for small business and for big business alike and for the not-for-profit sector. Getting $1 billion a year of red tape reductions was something that those opposite thought was impossible but, in fact, we more than doubled that with more than $2 billion of red tape achievements being reached.

We have the largest infrastructure spending projects on record underway as a result of the $50 billion stimulus in last year's budget and an asset recycling plan which incentivises the states to take those decisions to sell existing infrastructure and reinvest in new infrastructure. But, no surprise, those opposite block our attempts to reboot the Australian economy and to boost supply by investing in appropriate infrastructure. That is what we have tried to do.

On top of that the member for Goldstein has been heroic in his efforts to get through free trade agreements. Those three free trade agreements will be the bedrock of this Australian economy in the years to come because they lock us into the growth economies on our doorstep—to China, to Japan and of course to Korea, three of our largest export partners, with China being our No. 1 trading partner with $150 billion a year of two-way trade. Of course, we are not stopping. Indonesia and India are also where we are going.

Things stayed in the Labor Party's in-tray for way too long and never had their i's dotted and t's crossed. We have achieved that. As a result our dairy exporters, our beef exporters, our resource producers and our service providers—because 70 per cent of the Australian economy is services but only 17 per cent of our exports are services—will all benefit. That is going to be a result of the initiatives that are underway.

Members opposite try to say that the Australian economy is not going well. I can tell you that the Australian economy is strong, sound and improving under our watch. Just consider this. In the last year growth was 2.7 per cent compared to 1.9 per cent under Labor. Job advertising levels are at their highest in over two years. Over 200,000 jobs were created on our watch, which equates to 600 new jobs every day. The Dun & Bradstreet business expectations survey released on 3 February this year found that outlook on employment is the most positive it has been in 10 years. Australia's retail trade numbers have now risen for seven consecutive months to be 4.1 per cent higher through the year. Of course, the four-week average of the ANZ consumer confidence index sits around its long-term average levels and last year there were 223,000 new companies registered in Australia, which was an increase of 10.2 per cent from the levels we saw in 2013.

Dwelling approvals are also up—8.8 per cent higher than last year. This is a very good story. When you combine that story with the fact that we have just had an interest rate cut by 25 basis points, which for an average family with a $300,000 mortgage will mean $750 extra in their pocket, with the fact that petrol prices are at their lowest levels in many years and as a result the average Australian family will save about $1,000 a year and with the fact that electricity prices are now $550 lower because we have abolished the carbon tax, that is good news for the standard of living for an average Australian. That is a good news story. We have more investment, greater exposure overseas and the cost of living is coming down.

On this side of the House we do not just talk; we do. In our 17 months in office we have been very proud of the work in budget repair that we have undertaken. We have been very proud of the infrastructure projects we have underway. We have been very proud of the free trade agreements we have secured. We have been very proud of the deregulation we have undertaken. That is all now making its way through the Australian economy in terms of increased job advertisements—jobs being found for people who have previously been unemployed. Housing dwellings are up, retail numbers are strong and at the end of the day the Australian people looked to those opposite and said, 'You never delivered anything in your six years of office other than debt and deficit.' There is a better way and it stands with the coalition.

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