Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Effectively managing Australia's economy can seem complicated for some people. It has clearly always been beyond the understanding of the Leader of the Opposition, for example. The shadow Treasurer obviously struggles with the idea daily. And the Deputy Leader of the Opposition finds even aspiration mystifying, so I fear she is a long way off. Only one side of the House understands how to effectively manage the economy, because only one side of the House understands and appreciates business.

Managing a prosperous economy is a lot like running a successful business. Unlike those members opposite, most Australians living in the real world recognise the commonsense principles you need to follow if you want to do either. In business, just like a household budget, if you spend more than you earn then you're going to come unstuck. One of the first and hardest lessons in life for most Australians is: if you can't afford it, don't buy it.

It's a lesson that business owners and working Australians remember every day, but sadly it is a lesson this Labor Party forgot long ago. The Turnbull government has applied that principle rigorously, recording the lowest rate of spending growth of any government in more than 50 years and delivering a tax-to-GDP cap of 23.9 per cent. It's why, for six successive forecast updates, we've been able to project that the budget's underlying cash balance will reach a surplus in 2020-21. It's also why we can already say that the Turnbull government is the first government in a decade that is not borrowing to pay for everyday expenses. If we can't afford it, we're not buying it.

The Labor Party, in stark contrast, are irredeemably and genetically addicted to spending money they don't have. They refuse to commit to any spending restraint because they don't intend to show any. At the last election they promised higher taxes on housing and income, and yet they still would have created a deficit of $16.5 billion—that's billion with a 'b'—higher than us. They're spending that same money again, and then some. Their track record is clear. Under the last federal Labor government, spending was rising by four per cent in real terms, above inflation, on average, while debt was rising by a staggering 30 per cent every year. This is after being handed $50 billion in credit by the Howard government.

Our hardworking constituents also know that, if you charge your customers so much for the services you provide that they can no longer afford to pay for them, your business will fail. If you charge them so much they can't pay their bills and they have nothing left over to grow their prosperity, then your income will soon disappear. The Turnbull government wants to see all Australians prosper, get ahead and keep more of their own money. We don't want to charge Australians any more for their government than we absolutely have to. That's why we've delivered historic tax relief for every working Australian, and ensured that 94 per cent of working Australians will never have to pay a marginal tax rate above 32½c in the dollar. It's also why we have reduced the company tax rate for all businesses with a turnover of $50 million and are working to expand that tax relief. We know that prosperous businesses deliver more jobs, stronger growth and more sustainable tax revenue to pay for the services that Australians rely on.

The price the Labor Party charge taxpayers for their government can never be high enough. No amount of tax is too much for the Labor Party. They fought to stop our tax cuts for working Australians, voting to take $70 billion more out of Australians' pockets. They proposed more than $200 billion in other additional taxes, including extra taxes on housing, electricity, small business, investment income and even pensions—yes, even pensions. In total, they want to take $8,000 more away from every single Australian through higher taxes.

Labor cannot be trusted with our nation's economy. They can't help themselves. Labor always want to spend money they don't have and, when the time comes, it's always Australians that have to pick up the bill.

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