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

When I went to the Governor-General earlier this year and called the general election, what I said was that we would create another 1¼ million new jobs over the next four years. Since that election in May, almost 70,000 new jobs have been created. When I went to the Governor-General and stood before the Australian people, I said we will maintain budget surpluses without increasing taxes and pay down the debt. This year the budget is in surplus, and that is the first time that has happened in 12 years. We are committed to keeping it that way so we can reduce the debt and not put the burden of the current generation on future generations. That is the legacy we inherited from the former Labor government, and we have spent the last six years cleaning up their fiscal mess. And now, after six years, we have been able to bring the budget back to surplus. That means that we can pay down the debt and ensure that we do not put that burden on future generations.

I said we would deliver tax relief to the Australian people, and we have—and we have done so in spades. I said that I wanted Australians to keep more of what they earn, and that is what we have delivered in these first six months alone. I said we would give small business support and, through the deregulation work done by the Treasurer and the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, we are delivering on those deregulation targets and, in particular, removing the regulation that enables a sole operator to employ their first person. Our government is about jobs and our government is delivering on jobs. We are removing the burdens that get in the way, that prevent small businesses employing people.

I said that we would keep Australians safe, and that is what we have done with record funding to our security agencies and record funding to our defence industries, backing them up with laws dealing with everything from countering foreign interference to ensuring that we're protecting children from child abuse. I said we would do that and we would keep our borders secure, and yesterday we kept that promise to the Australian people.

And we learned of the Labor Party, which has learned absolutely nothing from the Australian people and the last election, when the people said they will have no truck with a party that will not keep the borders secure, and that's why Labor were rejected. I said we would guarantee increased funding—record funding—for hospitals, schools and disability services. All of this has been delivered in a surplus budget without the need to increase taxes, as those opposite proposed to do, and we could do so while reducing debt at the same time.

That's what I promised to do when I went to the election in May, and that's what our government is delivering.

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