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

I'm in this place every single day talking about the economy, and let me tell you this: when we came to government, the real wage growth through the year was 0.5 per cent and today it's 0.7 per cent. On household debt, I note the comments of the most recent RBA minutes:

Despite the high level of household debt in Australia relative to other countries, the risks from household debt appeared to be mostly contained. … members noted that households continued to have large prepayments on their housing debt. In aggregate, mortgage prepayments were equal to two-and-a-half years of repayments.

What we're doing on jobs and what we're doing in restoring the budget to surplus will ensure that we will be there not only to meet the needs of today but also to meet the needs of tomorrow, because we know how to keep our heads, to keep calm, and to ensure that we continue to lay out the policies which we know are having the impact that they need to have, particularly in relation to employment.

Employment in this country is the beginning of everything. If someone has a job, that means they have an income. If they have an income, it means they have choice—and they will have choices on a much grander scale today than previously because of the policies that we've been putting in place. They extend to the record investment we are putting into education, ensuring every parent, regardless of where they live, will have the choice to send their children to the schools that they would like to. Equally, when it comes to medicines or hospitals or other measures, they are getting support through the budget that gives them those choices. Our government is a government that's about jobs. It is a government getting on with the job, and that's what our government will continue to do.

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