David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition wants to talk about the pressing needs of the nation. I'll just explain a few things about the federation, for the member for Perth. I don't think he was here in 2017, but one of the acts that were passed was the Medicare Guarantee Act, which created the Medicare guarantee fund, which is the first cab off the rank in any budget. Medicare is guaranteed. And, while we're talking about health, there's extra money for WA's hospitals. Every hospital in the country is getting more federal money via their state governments. In our federation, the states build the bricks-and-mortar public infrastructure, like the roads that you're frustrated about and like hospitals. But the federal contribution by this government has gone up exponentially over the last seven years.

What did we inherit? We inherited a deficit and a debt that were never, ever present when those opposite came into government, back in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period. We had money in the bank. Those opposite spent it all like there was no tomorrow; they built up and locked in spending programs and deficits for the first four years. Then, for the next six years, they blocked all our savings measures. So we have balanced the budget and brought it back into the black. That's why we've been able to provide money for schools and hospitals, and it's why we've reformed child care.

We are delivering infrastructure. At least in New South Wales we've got a coalition state government that cooperates when we put money on the table. They use it to build the infrastructure like the Pacific Highway. They use it to build infrastructure like, in my electorate, the Bucketts Way improvements and like all the bridges and roads that we've improved. We've improved them courtesy of black spots funding, which we've increased; Roads to Recovery funding, which we've increased; and the Bridges Renewal Program, which we've increased. All of this is happening because we have cooperation from the state government, unlike what we see with Queensland and Victoria. The Queensland Labor government is obstructing our efforts to fund dams and the Victoria Labor government is obstructing our efforts to build infrastructure in Victoria, like the East West Link. The connecting obstructing issue is not us; it's the state governments.

Getting back to health: we have pharmaceutical benefits that the PBAC has approved, and we have funded over 2,100 new medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This has been a period where we have seen more new cutting-edge drugs made available for Australian taxpayers and, most importantly, for our pensioners than I can remember in my whole medical career. I practised for 33 years before I came into this place. This period is just exploding with new drugs all time, because we've balanced our books and we have grown the economy.

The other thing that we've done is we have the least number of people—about 200,000 fewer people—on income support, because we've grown the economy. I know it's a big problem for those opposite that we have 1.4 million more jobs in the economy, that we've grown the pie and we've grown our revenue, and that we've actually cut taxes. People are getting their tax refunds. Most people in my electorate definitely earn under $90,000, and they are getting the full $1,080 in their refunds; they've just got to get their returns in. There are over four million people that have, and there are many more that will. There are plenty of couples in my area of the country who are both working and earning less than $90,000. They'll get the maximum tax return of $1,080. That is continuing right out to 2022, where, in our tax plan, we're extending the threshold of those paying 19 per cent tax up to $45,000. So we have delivered.

Small businesses are benefiting too; they've got a tax cut down to 27.5 per cent. Most of the small businesses in my part of the country are earning less than $50 million, and they're all getting the benefit of it. With the drought, everyone's familiar with the funds that we've put on the table for state governments. Like I said, New South Wales cooperate; they want to build dams too, and they've just passed through the cabinet the emergency measures to make this happen and cut away all the bureaucratic obstruction. So well done to the New South Wales coalition government.

But we have the record for creating more jobs. We have 70 new apprentices due to our apprentice subsidy scheme rounds 1 and 2. We have $2 million of grants in the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages, North Coast, which has led to $7 million of investment by private industry and 200 new jobs. (Time expired)

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