Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The audacity to pose this question. You have attacked the PM over his leadership while the opposition leader has tuck tailed a run to Canada just when the going gets tough over the plebiscite. Today, it is very clear that the PM's leadership is both substantive and compelling. And a few facts—I will start right at the top: on 2 January there was an election. We won and you lost. We have a mandate, we formed government and we sit on the Treasury benches. The Prime Minister is our leader and he is doing an exceptional job. The PM is committed—doggedly committed—to delivering for the Australian people.

The twin responsibilities of federal government are economic and national security. Firstly, economic security: today we learned economic growth has strengthened to 3.3 per cent, which is faster than any G7 nation. We have created 220,000 jobs this past year, with 60 per cent of those jobs for women. We have also made legislative changes to section 46, making Australian businesses more competitive. We abolished the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, which was a union pox on owner-operator truckies in this country and Glen Morris of Serpentine in Canning, an owner-operator truckie, is very, very glad that we did.

Going forward, we are introducing the PaTH program, which will create 120,000 jobs for young people in the private sector, changing lives and creating opportunity. We also have the enterprise tax plan, which will provide 870,000 incorporated small businesses with a tax cut this year, driving both growth and jobs. When it comes to infrastructure investment, the Prime Minister again has shown leadership in delivering a $50 billion land infrastructure package, a 15-year rolling plan which will provide confidence and continuity to industry and investment. We have rolled out the NBN to three million premises in this country, and 1.2 million homes and businesses are now active customers, providing economic, social and educational opportunities to Australians across this country both in our cities and in regional areas.

When it comes to national security—the other pillar—the Prime Minister is delivering. We are going to provide a $195 billion spend on defence capability over the next 10 years. We are going to build 54 new naval vessels. Under Labor, under your previous government, not even a piece of driftwood came out of your efforts in this space. When it comes to border protection, it has been 800 days since a boat arrival. You opened 17 detention centres and we have closed 17—

Dr Aly interjecting—

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