Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have been hearing a lot of numbers from those opposite, but it seems to me that the only time that they get their numbers right is when they are putting the knife into the back of one of their leaders. So I thought we would go right back to basics and I would read straight from the budget papers as to what has happened to the budget deficit. So what was the budget deficit that we inherited? I go to table 5. The numbers are pretty clear: minus $48.5 billion. That is what we inherited from those opposite. What was it 2014-15? $41.1 billion. I think the second one is smaller than the first one. The deficit is going down. Let us see what goes on from then: then we go to a $35.1 billion deficit. I am not always as good at maths as those opposite when it comes to leadership spills, but it seems to that $35.1 billion is lower. Then we go to $25.8 billion; then $14.4 billion, then $6.9 billion; each of those is smaller than the last. I think it is straightforward. If we look a little bit deeper—and I do not want to get too much more complicated—spending growth under those opposite was 3.6 per cent a year, and now it is one. It is simple. These are the numbers. Please get them right in future.

What I want to focus on is small business, because here on this side of the House we know that what drives the economy more than anything else is the job creation, investment and prosperity that are created by the small business people across our electorates: farmers, tradespeople, accountants, lawyers, entrepreneurs—you name it. They are the ones that create prosperity for our economy and our country. I was lucky enough to have a group of small business people and farmers from my electorate at the budget dinner last night. When the Treasurer announced the package of small business support measures in the budget, they were straight on their phones, texting, talking and planning how to invest in their businesses. That is what we want. That is what this budget will deliver. They were having a go within minutes of the announcements, and that is what we want: immediate impact.

This is exciting for me, because I know that the entrepreneurs, the innovators, are not here; they are out there. They are not in the public service; they are in the private sector. We want these people investing and creating jobs for Australia's future. Nowhere is that more true than in regional Australia. We have heard a lot about the tax deductions and the accelerated depreciation that will have huge impacts on the investments that are being made in regional Australia, which do not just impact those businesses themselves but all their suppliers and all their service providers who will also benefit from those investments.

There is also much in this budget about infrastructure investment. In my electorate, I am absolutely delighted that we have $16 million of investment under the National Stronger Regions Fund: a water treatment plant in Goulburn and a pipeline from Yass to Murrumbateman, which will support the growth of an extraordinary region which has been stimulated not just by this budget but by what this government has been doing since it has been in power.

I just want to spend a moment on the Labor contrast, because Labor's idea of stimulating the economy is through unwanted school halls, through dangerous home insulation, through GP superclinics and through an NBN that never delivered.

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