Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the member opposite: read the reality of what happens before the worker is hired. The key point I put to the member opposite is this: does it happen before the worker is hired? Read it. It is a key issue.

Opposition members interjecting—

They are getting very sensitive! The key issue is: does it happen before the person is hired? If labour force testing happens before the person is hired, then their campaign is based on a lie and on fear. I think it is a remarkable thing that the new Labor Party is borderline xenophobic, campaigning against an agreement that opens up our economy and creates tens of thousands of new jobs. That is something that the Labor Party of Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Simon Crean would never do. This has been a long, long journey for the Labor Party.

On the issue of jobs, there exists a fundamental divide between this side of politics and that side of politics. I see it in my own community, when I walk around the community. The big creators of wealth and prosperity and particularly of employment are not the government; they are the enterprising individuals who are prepared to go out there and have a go. On this side of politics we simply say: how do we not make their life more difficult? There is a principle here. If we say to those people in our community who are going out and having a go trying to start a business and employ people, 'We will let you keep more of your own money in your pocket rather than take it out,' they might be able to grow that business and employ more people.

There is a fantastic quote from Winston Churchill that you cannot repeat enough in this place. Winston Churchill said:

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

This is something the Labor Party fails to recognise. When you create greater pressures on those people in my community trying to create employment, when you tax them more and make it harder for them to do business, they cannot go out there and do that. In the small business package that we introduced—the largest small business package the country has ever seen—that is exactly what we are doing: we are allowing those enterprising individuals to keep more of their money in their pockets so that they can grow their businesses and employ more people, creating greater prosperity for our region and our country.

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