Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question and I can inform the House that today the government has released the fourth Intergenerational report, the Intergenerational report which provides a road map of our nation's likely development over the next four decades. I am pleased to say that the Intergenerational report shows clearly that our country's best days are ahead of us. Our country's best days are ahead of us, provided government plays to our strengths as a nation and provided government can live within its means. Australians will live longer and better lives amidst ever-boosted prosperity, provided government remains serious about economic reform in the decades ahead, as it has been for much of the decades past.

The good news that the Intergenerational report shows is that the structural reforms already proposed by this government, and passed by this parliament, have halved the deficit that was left to us by the former government. The reforms proposed by this government, and passed by this parliament, have halved deficits that were heading for 12 per cent of GDP. They have halved debt that was heading for 120 per cent of GDP under the policies of the former government. All of this is now well on the road to repair as the Intergenerational report shows. It shows that the debt and deficit problem that was out of control under the former government is now coming back under control thanks to a government that takes economic reform seriously. What this should do is give Australians much greater confidence about our long-term future.

There is so much room for optimism about this great country of ours right now: interest rates are low and stable; petrol prices are lower than they have been for years; last year power prices fell by the largest amount on record; and we have a dollar which is low and competitive and looks like being stable for quite some time. And we have a government which is open for business and serious about economic reform—a government which has gotten rid of the carbon tax; a government which has scrapped the mining tax; a government which has delivered $2 billion in business red tape cost reductions; and, above all else, a government which has delivered three free trade agreements that have defeated governments for a decade. I want my children and grandchildren to grow up in a better Australia than I did. A government's task is to make it so, and this government is delivering.

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