Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

The previous speaker spoke about the things that the government hasn't done, and he is actually right: we didn't put $387 billion of new taxes on the Australian people. That's what we didn't do and that's what Australians are particularly pleased about.

We know there have been 1.4 million new jobs in our time, including 70,000 since the election in May. That's what's happened. We are bringing the budget back into surplus and back into balance for the first time in over 11 years. Those of us in business understand how important this is. It will enable us to pay down debt. We have delivered tax relief to individuals and to business, and Australians are keeping more of what they earn. We can look at the record funding for our security agencies to keep Australians safe, something that is an expectation of government and something that I'm particularly proud that this government does, and our commitment to protecting children from child abuse. Often it's the smaller measures—

Ms Thwaites interjecting—

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