Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

The title of this MPI is 'The broken promises and failures of the government', and I thought I would talk today about the successes of the Turnbull government as a counter to that. I thought it would be a lot more compelling than the 10 minutes of attempted personal sledges and humour, which missed the mark most broadly, although there was a five-second plan at the end of it—almost. Four of the five seconds were filled with the plan.

Obviously, the most important job of a federal government is to keep its citizens safe. Since coming to office, the coalition has increased counterterrorism funding by $1.5 billion. Since September 2014 there have been 13 attempted major terrorism attacks, 74 people have been charged as a result of 31 counterterrorism operations, and 40 people have been convicted of terrorism offences. The coalition has invested more than $45 million over the past four years in programs to counter radicalisation and to remove online terrorist propaganda, more than triple that of the previous Labor government. We are talking about introducing laws where we can pull young, misguided children off planes. I have sat with the families of those affected when those laws weren't in place, and they have just been so disappointed they weren't, because they will never see their sons again.

What did we have under Labor in counterterrorism? It was a budget-cutting item. They cut 700 staff and $735 million from Customs over their six years. There was embarrassment for the member for Blaxland, who was the minister at the time, when the biggest ever catch of amphetamines was found in Regents Park in his electorate under his watch. Labor cut staff from Australia's federal law enforcement and border protection agencies, and under Labor we had record low investment in security of Australian citizens.

The second most important job of the federal government is to protect our borders. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, each time he stands at this box, talks about the fact that the boats have stopped, and they are still stopped. Kids are out of detention. Seventeen detention centres are closed. There have been citizenship changes and 457 visa changes to protect the jobs of Australians.

Then you get to the economy, my favourite topic, which was completely neglected by the Leader of the Opposition. There were personal tax cuts delivered, and 500,000 middle income earners benefited from them.

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