Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel compelled, after such eloquence, to make a contribution to this debate! I thank the member for Rankin for raising this critical issue, the member for Kingsford Smith for his eloquence and of course the member for Brisbane for being the only sensible one in this entire debate thus far. I made a new year's resolution that I was going to be a kinder, gentler person in this term of parliament and that I would deal with ideas, not people. But, seriously, is the member for Rankin, the former chief of staff to 'Swanny', the architect of the four surplus budgets—a tragedy that deserves its own orchestra—coming before us and lecturing us about the economy? He, of course, has a PhD. How does it feel to be not even in the top 10 economists on that side of the House? He has a PhD in Paul Keating, the man who gave us 'the recession we had to have' and who had our credit rating downgraded. Lucifer himself could not create the temptation that the member for Rankin creates every time he stands up and lectures this House about economic management! Then, of course, a speech that was meant to be entertaining just became like that low-level droning that you get when you go to the dentist. His best line actually came from repeating the interjection from the member for Moreton.

This is what Labor have left us. They can't even come up with a good attack point. No wonder that, when we took over in 2013, there was a $387 billion deficit, growth was at 0.7 per cent and we had the lowest level of workforce participation in a generation. If that was the best that they've got, no wonder that that was what we faced when we came into government. In comparison to that, we now have an economy with a AAA credit rating that has been taken off negative watch. We have balanced budgets that will be in surplus. Jobs are up and dependency is down. The number of free trade agreements is rising and taxes are going down. That's what has happened under the Morrison government; that's what has happened under the Liberal Party. Unlike those opposite, we believe that people deserve to keep more of what they earn. Those opposite believe that it's their money and they're just letting the people keep it.

The IMF report that was handed down overnight makes the point that global growth is going to go down and has been trending down for some time. It makes it clear that the reason for that is the trade war between China and the United States. Does it really surprise those opposite that Australia's growth rate is hit harder than that of other nations in the global economy, given our exposure to the Chinese economy, given that our export sector is so dependent upon the Chinese economy? What this government has been doing—and this is something that those opposite could never do in a lifetime—is diversifying who we trade with, through free trade agreements with other nations. We have been ensuring that the risks that the Australian economy face are actually turned down. But do they thank us? No. They wouldn't even understand what we've been doing.

This is the 28th year of economic expansion in Australia. Those opposite wouldn't know anything about that whatsoever. Our plan is to increase economic freedom. Our plan is to increase economic hope. Our plan is to increase economic opportunity. The plan of those opposite is simply to increase taxes. That's all they want to do.

We've created over a million new jobs and we are going to continue to create more jobs. We are going to put at the heart of this economy the people, not their mates in the trade union movement and not their mates in industry super. We are going to make sure that there is consumer protection for people buying financial products and buying goods and services. We are going to allow companies to compete. For small companies we are going to reduce the barriers to entry and allow those companies to be the most competitive small businesses in the world—whether it be through lower corporate taxes or the increased instant asset write-off. Labor's answer to all of this is to panic and, no doubt, to have a new round of subsidised pink batts.

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