Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and provided the budget strength that this country needs. We've done so not by accident, but because we've done exactly the opposite of what the opposition has put forward to the Australian people. We have gone to the Australian people and said, 'We want to cut taxes, so we can put money in people's hip pockets, so they can go and spend, so they can create jobs in small businesses across our great country, because we have an economy built from the citizen and the enterprise up.' What was their alternative? Their alternative was to turn around to Australians and say the solution to the economy was themselves: 'I know! We'll just hoard more money in our hip pockets and we'll spend it because we in Canberra somehow have a better idea how to govern this country and run business and grow jobs.' That is the fallacy at the heart of the opposition and their policy agenda. It's the exact opposite of how you build a strong economy. It's a type of leadership—I won't argue it—but it's a leadership to wreck an economy, and wreck the opportunities and prosperity of this great nation.

Now, the fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong. We have high employment levels. We have low welfare dependency. We've done an enormous amount in making sure we have an export oriented and competitive economy. But these things do not happen by accident. The strength and the opportunity that comes from that is that we have a budget position where we're able to turn around in times of crisis, just like we have now, and put money on the table for those who are in need and to assist today those regional and rural communities that are doing it tough. We'll help them rebuild, stimulate the local businesses and create the jobs that have been lost.

We're looking to the future for what we can do in expanding our trade opportunities to the world. Under the UK free trade agreement that we're going to negotiate with a post-Brexit Britain—a great moment for all countries around the world—we're going to create the opportunities that have been lost in the past because of the UK's absorption into the European Union.

When I saw this motion was the matter of public importance for today, I just shook my head. When you think about the intellectual thought that went on behind it—it reminded me of a moment in the debate between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan in 1984. They threw out all sorts of attacks, and Reagan just had to turn around and make the simple point: in endorsing his strategic defence plan, his long track record was to vote against it at every step of the way and Mondale would be standing in the sea. That's where the opposition stands—in the sea of irrelevance and absent ideas.

See this speech in context