Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

To the Australian people I say this: you have, in the Morrison government, a government that is on the side of your economic advancement, a government that is about growing the economy to ensure that your family have the best choices available to them. You have a government that is on your side, that is in your corner, that has your back. It is a stable government that is calmly rolling out a plan for an even stronger economy.

In contrast, the debate today from Labor members opposite has been like a recital of their greatest hits. The Labor members opposite were crowing about how they dealt with the economy. There was the panic stimulus that they tried to put into the economy by sending cheques to dead people. There was rhetoric from the Labor members opposite about how the top end of town is dragging us all down. They've dusted off the same rhetoric that in May was so comprehensively rejected by the Australian people. Labor members during this debate were talking to the Australian people about how they could spend their money better than they could. They were lecturing them about how, if only the Australian people would yield to their $387 billion in taxes, they would take that money and spend it better. Most concerning was that time and time again during this debate we had, from the Labor members opposite, rhetoric talking down our Australian economy; talking down what Australians could achieve; talking down our plan to grow this economy to bring everybody up, rather than having somebody fall at the expense of somebody else.

There are challenges to the economy; we know that. But we have a prescription for it that's different to that of the Labor members opposite. Our prescription for the challenges that face us, those global headwinds, is to build them into our budget, to have a strong economic and financial plan to meet those challenges. That is unlike the prescription of Labor members opposite—we heard it today, we heard it in May and they're still repeating it—which is that they need $387 billion in taxes out of people's pockets because they know how to spend Australians' money better than they do.

Let's look at the strong financial plan that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister are delivering, which has built in those economic challenges and headwinds that we face. Let's see the results of that: a budget that is returning to balance for the first time in 11 years and an Australian economy that continues to grow, with employment growth more than twice the OECD average. It is a significant achievement. We are one of only 10 developed countries with an AAA credit rating, setting the Australian economy apart from those of the rest of the world. There were 300,000 additional jobs created in 2018-19, because that's what this government is all about—creating jobs. Why? Not because we love statistics but because jobs create choices—choices for Australian families, choices for mums and dads to provide education and provide opportunities for their kids.

Employment grew by 2.6 per cent during the 2018-19 year. Wages increased by 2.3 per cent in the last year, while inflation ran at 1.6 per cent. That's on top of this government's economic achievements in helping to keep the cost of living down, like the big-stick legislation that we were talking about earlier. And we have a budget that is returning to surplus on top of tax cuts for millions of Australians that are helping them put more money in their pockets so, again, they can make the right choices for their families.

All that we hear from the Labor members opposite, in contrast, is about their $387 billion worth of taxes; how they'd like to restart their rampant spending and their crisis stimulus, which sends cheques to dead people; and how they would like to implement policies that they took to the last election that were comprehensively rejected by Australians—policies that they can't even cost. That's how much they care about the challenges facing the economy: they are willing to go to the Australian people and put before them policies on which they themselves cannot even tell the Australian people what they will cost or what they would do to the economy. That's why our government are better economic managers. (Time expired)

See this speech in context