Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her question, and I congratulate her on her first, or maiden, speech in this parliament. The life experience and the skills that she has will make an enormous contribution in this place, and I congratulate her.

The Australian people made a choice that they wanted a government that believes in lower taxes not higher taxes. They made a choice that they wanted to be able to keep more of what they earned—that's the choice they made—and not just as individual taxpayers going to work every day but as small businesses going and doing the hard slog of taking risks and putting in businesses. They wanted and made a choice that they wanted a government that believes that taxes should be lower, not higher.

They made a choice that they wanted a government that knew how to put the conditions in place to create more jobs. And, after more than 1.3 million jobs being created in the first two terms of this government, they chose to see another 1¼ million jobs created over the next five years.

They chose that a surplus is what this government needed when it came to responsible financial management, and they chose responsible economic and financial managers who knew how to deliver surpluses. And we are now in the first year of surplus in 12 years.

They chose to have the services, the essential services, that they rely on; affordable medicines, 2,000 of them, listed on the PBS; record funding for hospitals and schools. They chose to have those essential services guaranteed—not by higher taxes but by a stronger economy and a government that understood that.

They chose that they wanted Australians to be kept safe and their borders to remain secure. That's what they chose.

They chose that they wanted Australians to get home sooner and safer. They chose that they wanted their kids to be able to buy a house and that the house that they owned would not be eroded by the reckless policies of the Labor Party.

They chose practical policies, realistic policies, that reduce our emissions and take action on climate change, without destroying the livelihoods of Australians all across this country with reckless schemes that the Labor Party could not even answer a question on as to what their impact would be on Australians' daily lives, their jobs, their economy and the cost to them. They chose to decide that they would make the consideration about what industries would be in their communities, and they wouldn't have people coming up in caravans from the south parading around North Queensland and other places telling them what jobs they could have and making them feel guilty about the industries that they have always depended on and will continue to depend on. They chose a government that knows how to keep the lights on and reduce power prices. (Time expired)

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