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

Keep calm. Everything is okay. This country is going quite well with the coalition at the helm. There is no such thing as collapse. Let me walk you through the facts. Fact No. 1: the Australian economy is expanding, not contracting; it is growing. Since Labor lost government in 2013, nearly 500,000 jobs have been grown—180,000 jobs in the last year alone. GDP growth in this country is at 3.3 per cent. As the minister said just a few minutes ago, Australia's economy is the 12th largest economy in the world. The June quarter national accounts confirm 2015-16 was Australia's 25th consecutive year of economic growth. We are growing the fastest we have been growing in the last four years. We are growing faster than every G7 economy—twice the rate of the US and Canada. If you call that a collapse, I do not know what words you would use to describe the experience in the US and Canada; you are breaking the English language with topic choices like this.

Fact No. 2: government is investing in future growth. We are enabling economic growth with infrastructure investment. Our efficient delivery of the NBN is one such example. Over 3.2 million Australian premises can now be connected to NBN, with 1.3 million Australian homes or businesses currently connected. This opens up social, economic and educational opportunities for Australians.

We are delivering critical telecommunications infrastructure in regional Australia. We are investing $220 million in the mobile black spot program delivering 499 new or improved mobile phone towers covering 3,000 black spots in regional communities. We are delivering a $50 billion land infrastructure package, with $4 billion to public transport alone and $500 million to make roads safer. All these things are very important. Public transport, roads and telecommunications bring our economy to life and continue to enable it to grow.

Our defence industry plan is growing the economy creating economic and national security into the future with $195 billion over the next 10 years. Fifty four vessels will be built—unlike the zero vessels built in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years.

Our enterprise tax plan and holiday makers reform package are both excellent tax packages. If you get on with the job of helping us govern and pass these things through both houses, the economy will continue to grow. But if you want to talk about collapse, let me quote a former leader of yours, Paul Keating: 'Modern Labor, like a souffle, has been collapsing over the last 25 years.' To finish his metaphor: a souffle cannot rise twice. That is not a partisan point. I acknowledge that, during the Hawke-Keating years, you reduced the top marginal tax rate, reformed the tariff system, reduced protectionism, floated the dollar and deregulated the financial system. Tough choices—and that was leadership. But since the Rudd-Gillard years, which were definitely years of collapse, you have shown no signs of changing your tune. In six budgets there was $191 billion in accumulated deficits. The carbon tax would have cost this country $1.3 trillion out to 2050 if we had not axed the tax. I am proud of that. That is a good thing we did.

If you want to talk about rapid collapse, let's talk about the live cattle trade. You brought that down at rapid speed. You hurt small and large businesses, supply chains, regional communities, family farms. That is collapse. That is collapse, indeed.

Now, at the last election you confirmed you would deliver higher debt, higher deficits and higher taxes. You confirmed you would increase our deficit by at least $16.5 billion. According to Saul Eslake, a leading economist, there is a greater risk to our triple-A rating under Labor. If you want collapse, let's hand the reins over to you.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

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