Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not a birthday party, this is not a game; this is our national parliament. All of us here, no matter which side of the House we sit on, have a responsibility to govern in the national interest and in the interest of all Australians. I say to those opposite—and I reflect upon the decisions the Australian people made in 2013 and 2016: we were voted in by the Australian people because Australians do not trust Labor to manage their money. We saw a disastrous six years of Labor. After we left the national books in really good shape, in 2007 our economy was trashed. When we tried to do a whole range of responsible things, including passing measures worth some $5 billion proposed by the previous government led by the likes of the member for McMahon, members opposite turned their collective backs on those savings. Can you imagine how much more difficult our job became when members opposite did not even have the courage to back their own savings? I do reflect positively on the decision members opposite have made this week to back our omnibus bill, which has delivered savings of $6.3 billion, but we have got a lot more hard work to do. And the reason for that is the irresponsible approach members opposite took not just in the six years in which they governed this country but in the last three years. So I say: stop playing these games. Australians are sick of these parlour games, all of these ridiculous analogies. Under the previous Labor government we saw four so-called record surpluses—which were never delivered—record debt, record deficits and even their refusal to pass their own particular savings.

We are very proud of our economic plan. We were the only side of politics to go to the Australian people with a strong economic plan—an enterprise tax plan to drive small and medium Australian businesses and lower the company tax rate. I am absolutely staggered by the contribution by the member for Macarthur, who has absolutely condemned company tax cuts. The Leader of the Opposition previously supported tax cuts. Members opposite do not know whether they are coming or going—and that is a perfect illustration. One minute, the Leader of the Opposition supports tax cuts—because he recognises they will delivers jobs and drive incentives and business confidence—and now you are condemning business tax cuts. What an absolute joke!

We have addressed bracket creep and rewarded hard work by raising the middle income tax threshold from $80,000 to $87,000. We have delivered the defence industry plan. As the member for Corangamite, I am working very hard to attract a big slice of that work—particularly with the LAND 400 project, which is worth $3 billion to $5 billion, a very important once-in-a-generation project for our country. We saw the absolute slothfulness from members opposite in not progressing any defence industry plan when they were in government. We have a very important innovation and science agenda—$1.1 billion of investment. There is $50 billion for national infrastructure.

We are also ensuring that multinational companies pay their fair share of tax. And what an absolute disgrace. When we tackled multinational tax avoidance, we needed the support of the Greens in the Senate to pass the legislation because, regrettably, Labor opposed that very important measure.

So let's contrast. Today, of course, we have had some very good news with employment, which shows that our management of the economy is working—a 5.6 per cent national unemployment rate, and it is even lower in the Geelong region at 5.4 per cent. So we are driving jobs like there is no tomorrow. Our growth is strong—3.3 per cent. New jobs are being created. Over 180,000 jobs over the last year. Business confidence remains high and consumer confidence is high. Exports are strong. International education is playing its large part, and small business is playing its large part. I say to members opposite: please, for all of us, stop playing these games. It is absolutely irresponsible. Australians expect better of you. Join with us to make sure we can continue to run the economy responsibly.

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