Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Murray for his question. He knows, and we on this side of the House know, that next year when we deliver the budget it will be a budget surplus. It will be a surplus for every single Australian across the economy. We will do that without increasing taxes.

As the Prime Minister has said, the benefit of a strong economy is that you can provide the essential services that people need. And we have created jobs: since coming to government, more than 1.1 million new jobs. More than 100,000 young people have got a job over the last year—the highest number on record. We are backing small business, as the backbone of the Australian economy. We've provided tax cuts for 3.3 million small businesses. We're giving them greater access to finance. We're cutting $300 million worth of red tape. We have a $75 billion infrastructure project—more road, rail, airports, dams and other water infrastructure. And there's our health spending. Health spending is at record levels and, since the government came to power, we have listed 1,900 additional medicines on the PBS. When it comes to schools, there's more than $24 billion of additional funding going to Australia's schools, putting education funding at a record level. And, when it comes to defence, we have a $200 billion defence plan that has commissioned 54 naval vessels to be built here in Australia.

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

How many naval vessels did—

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