David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Leadership is about getting things done, and this Prime Minister is getting things done. There are so many things on the list of achievements. The biggest number in the Australian economy is GDP growth. GDP growth is about how well our economy is growing. Is it increasing in size? Are there more opportunities being created? Our GDP growth is one of the highest rates anywhere in the developed world and higher than any country in the G7—so, higher than Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK. All of those countries have lower GDP rates than Australia. Ours is 3.3 per cent, which is a fantastic outcome. It is an outcome that is leading to job creation.

When those opposite left power it was forecasted that by around now the unemployment rate would be up to about 6.5 per cent. It is not; it is 5.7 per cent. It is lower because of the strong economic growth under this government, with more than 200,000 jobs created in the last 12 months. Those are incredibly important statistics because ultimately so much of what we do in this place manifests itself into GDP and GDP growth. We have a stronger rate of GDP growth than any country in the G7—the world's most sophisticated economies. That is an exceptionally strong achievement.

We are also very serious about budget repair. When those opposite came into power there was $50 billion of cash in the bank. They left with $200 billion of net debt. That was very bad. It means that we now have a significant interest bill that we are required to pay. We are required to pay about $16 billion every year because of the negligence of those opposite. Happily, those opposite have cooperated with the government this week in passing $6 billion of important measures in the omnibus savings bill. That was an important achievement—and due credit goes to the opposition for supporting that—but there is a lot more to be done because the debt and deficit legacy of those opposite is so immense. We are going to be talking about it for many years to come and we will be confronting its challenges for many years to come. So there has been good progress this week. The government will continue to focus on this area.

We are also investing in the national security of the country and creating a strong national defence industry. There is $195 billion of investment, particularly in naval capability. Those opposite did not build a single ship during their six years in office. We will invest almost $200 billion in this space over the next 10 years and we will ensure that defence spending as a proportion of GDP rises from the woeful levels we saw under those opposite.

We also believe unapologetically in business tax cuts because business tax cuts mean more investment and more investment by business means more jobs. Ideologically, those opposite do not like that, but it happens to be true. Those opposite think that, if a business has a turnover of more than $2 million, it is a big business and it is not entitled to any tax relief. But if a business has a turnover of $2 million it does not mean that it makes $2 million of profit. It might make three per cent or four per cent of $2 million. With $2 million of turnover it might be making about the equivalent of a wage. They think that is a big business. That demonstrates their complete lack of understanding of these economic matters.

There are huge problems for those opposite in economic policy. In the election campaign they said: 'This is how much our super policy is going to affect the budget but we can't tell you what it is. We can't tell you what our policy is. We can tell you what the financial impact of it will be but we can't actually tell you what it is.' That is true; I am not making that up. It is worth reviewing the famous press conference where it was said, 'We will tell you how much we are going to save on our superannuation policy but we won't tell you what it is, because we do not know.' That is just kindergarten stuff.

They also knowingly signed up to increasing budget deficits by $16 billion over the forward estimates. So not content with the budget vandalism from 2010 to 2013 they said, 'Let's whack another $16 billion on top of it over the next four years just for good measure,' just to make things a bit worse. That was really quite extraordinary. The other good one is that they wanted to increase tax on business investment through negative gearing and capital gains tax. When you increase tax on investment, what happens? Less investment. If you increase tax on investment you get less investment. They again owned up to wanting to do that. So there is a lot of leadership on this side and none from those opposite.

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