Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When those over there meet their maker—the big burly dude, with the fluro jacket on and with halitosis—on this Friday, in their electorate offices, they can say to that individual: 'I'm really sorry. You can no longer wreak your havoc on the building site, but we did debate the economy for an hour. Did you hear my speech?' I mean, seriously! We have had unemployment at record lows for the last three years. We have had growth in full-time employment for 11 of the last 18 months—and then we have the leader of this debate from the other side come in here and report a 40,000 drop in full-time employment. He took the July figure and ignored the September figure, when it went up. That is right: just wherever it is convenient. You see this opposition conveniently redefining the debate wherever it can.

It was like that with Medicare yesterday. I think the member for Oxley was there for that debate. It is so inconvenient that Medicare bulk-billing rates keep going up in these Labor electorates—so let's redefine bulk-billing rates and not ask how many services are being delivered. Let's ask how many people are getting the services—a figure that has never been calculated in the history of humanity. But they are going to change the figures to suit their own convenience, because bulk-billing rates have gone up. There has never been a better friend of bulk-billing than the coalition government. There has never been a better friend of full-time employment than the coalition government. Ask anyone out there! Don't believe me. Don't believe that mob over there. Talk to the people doing the employing, because every night they go to bed praying that this government stays in government for another six years to give them some certainty.

Let's wind the time back a bit. It was back in 2008 when this lot thought they knew everything, didn't they? There was $80 billion in the coffers and it was a case of: let's just let it rip and spend the lot and see what happens. What they know over there is that, ultimately, the only people who pay off Labor debt are Liberal voters. So it never really matters, does it? They leave it as low as they can go, as long as they do not hurt the credit rating, and then they let the other guys clean it up. It is like the fire and rescue guys turning up to a burning house when the rogue tenants have escaped—that is that lot over there. And then they are getting in our way when we are trying to get the economy back under control.

Opposition members interjecting—

They are running interference at every step, making it harder to employ and making it harder to provide incentives. What are these corporate tax cuts for billionaires, again? That is 2024, isn't it? We have businesses with $1 million turnover and $2 million turnover thanking this side of politics that we are getting the tax cuts now so that there is a chance for there to be more employment for small business.

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