Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Somebody has left their reading glasses here. Probably the opposition leader threw them over here when he finished his speech, because he is a bit short-sighted! The Leader of the Opposition is a bit short-sighted! He said—

Mr Giles interjecting—

Be quiet. He said: 'I'd hate to see what failure looks like.' That is a quote from his speech in this matter of public importance debate: 'I'd hate to see what failure looks like.' Deputy Speaker, I know you would pull me up if I used this picture as a prop, so I am not going to show it to you, but it is what failure looks like. I will just hand it to my colleague here, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence.

Mr Chester interjecting—

It is the Labor front bench of the previous government; that is what failure looks like. That is what failure looks like, because Labor in government failed families, Labor in government failed small business, Labor in government failed farmers. It failed defence. It certainly failed veterans, Member for Canberra. And it failed Australia. Its legacy was debt and deficit as far as the eye can see. We have heard the Prime Minister say it many, many times: 'as far as the eye can see'.

Now, I listened to the Prime Minister closely in question time, as I always do, and I heard him talk about achieving policy which is 'right for these times'. He talked about export volumes, up seven per cent, and housing approvals, up 20 per cent, under the coalition government, and about getting Australia back on 'a credible path to surplus'. We need to be a country that 'lives within its means', he said today in question time. He said, 'I want all Australians to have the opportunity to get a job.' They are the sorts of parameters, the sorts of policy decisions, that we are taking and making to get Australia back to working, to get the economy back to ticking, after we were left in such economic malaise by those opposite. The coalition government's focus has been on strengthening economic growth, strengthening job creation and paving a realistic path back to surplus as soon as possible.

At 7.30 tonight, the Treasurer is going to stand exactly where I am standing now and deliver a strong, fair, measured and reasoned budget. He is not going to promise all sorts of things years out, without any realistic hope of achieving them—like we saw with the member for Lilley, who stood here not that long ago, on this very spot, and promised to get us back to surplus. He promised:

The four years of surpluses that I announce here tonight …

What a load of poppycock. What a load of nonsense. The country is seeing real progress, and the coalition plan is to get jobs up—and jobs are up. We need more jobs, though. We need to support families, particularly in regional areas. I am going to be followed by the member for Casey, a good member, and the members for Dobell and Banks, good members, who will talk further about our economic plans. But I would like to just highlight some of the things the Nationals are doing, in conjunction with the Liberals, to help small business and to help farmers.

Last Saturday, we saw the Prime Minister, with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Agriculture, announce a drought assistance package for regional communities—a support package worth $333 million. I know how valued that is going to be in your seat of Maranoa and your Queensland communities, Deputy Speaker, and certainly in those of the member for Parkes. There is $35 million for shovel-ready local infrastructure and employment projects. It also includes, along with a host of other things, $25.8 million for programs to manage pest animals and weeds in drought affected areas, which is so important in those areas that produce so much of Australia's food and fibre.

I also know how hard the Assistant Minister for Employment, the member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, is working on the national rollout of the Work for the Dole, which is also playing a vital part in regional communities to help people get into jobs—to help those people whom Labor forgot into what is often their first meaningful employment, which will hopefully generate full-time work for them when the program for those particular people ends. I commend the member for Cowper for the work that he is doing. He said that, over the past 10 months, there have been some terrific activities and projects conducted as part of the Work for the Dole pilot schemes, which are now obviously being rolled out further afield. That is good. That is a really good for Australia but particularly good for regional Australia.

Tonight's budget is going to deliver further on our jobs package. It is going to make further advances on all the things that we are doing to make this country tick again. I commend the trade agreements that we have forged with South Korea, Japan and China; hopefully, we will be able to conclude one with India this year. We are getting on with the job of making this country work again.

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