Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I mean the member for Bowen, and his contribution is to attack the Treasurer in a very personal way and bring up what he will be remembered for—'He'll be remembered for this; he'll be remembered for that'—in a really nasty, aggressive way. The member for Bowen is not showing leadership. That is not the leadership that the Australian people want to see—personal attacks. I say the member for Bowen is not fit for leadership. We heard from the member for Chifley and we heard from the member from Fraser, and they were able to construct an argument in a decent way, but the member for Bowen comes in here and criticises in a really personal way.

Opposition members interjecting—

I mean the member for McMahon. It is very funny. I am sorry. Forgive me; I am a new member. The shadow Treasurer is not fit for leadership, but I will not go on. He says that the economy is not going well—we see the Labor Party continuing to talk down the economy. He spoke about RET. What have they done for the last two years? They have only spoken about how we are not going to achieve it and how it is not going to be reached. We came up with a target we are on track to achieve, and the next minute they say it is going to be 50 per cent—no plan, no modelling; overnight a 50 per cent RET target. How they are going to pay for it? No idea. We see what the unions have been doing in relation to the CHAFTA, the China-Australia free trade agreement. The member for Moreton, who is a good fellow, came in here the other night and, in the adjournment debate, he was quick to attack the member for Dawson. Some members opposite ignore the xenophobia and fearmongering that goes on from the unions in relation to CHAFTA. There is hypocrisy in that. Talking down the economy is not the way to go.

In relation to jobs, we are all about jobs. We have a high target of one million jobs in five years. I am happy to say that, because it is something that we want to achieve. We have things in place like the Green Army, like Work for the Dole, like the $5 billion jobactive program to help the over 50s, and like our work experience program—which the member for Bowman is a champion of and is about to implement. As members here, we want to see our electorates do well. We want to see that, when people wake up on a Monday morning, they have a place to go. We saw, last month alone, 38,000 new jobs created. I think we are at 330,000 jobs, which is slightly below our target but I believe we will get there.

In relation to the cost of living, we have to look at Labor's record. We saw increased taxes on business and the mining tax. Right now the mining industry is in a bit of a downturn. Did the mining tax have something to do with that? Maybe it did. The carbon tax had an effect on the cost of living—not just on electricity and gas bills but when you go down to the local shops to buy food or you go out to have dinner at a restaurant. Last week the AMWU came and saw me in relation to shipbuilding in this country. I strongly support shipbuilding in this country. They said that we have a five-year gap where there are no ships being built. The Defence budget was cut significantly and, as the Prime Minister raised in question time today, not one ship was ordered. That is why we have a five-year gap.

Member for Chifley, I will raise Labor's debt and deficit. I promised I would. That does push up the cost of living. You talk about the GST. We should not be increasing any taxes until we can get a government that spends less than we earn. We have schoolchildren up there in the gallery. They know and their parents know that you cannot spend more than you earn year in, year out. We are at eight years and all we get from those opposite are more unfunded policies, higher taxes, 'Let's increase super' and everything else. We stand for lower taxes.

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