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

Would they not have offered the $50 million in immediate assistance for bushfire victims like the PM did? Would they not have made our first national compulsory call out of reservists to help bushfire affected communities like the PM did? Would they not be now working with the states to get the learnings of the last summer exactly as the PM is doing? In fact, what they tried to do during question time today was take retrospective credit for those decisions. We know that it was the PM and this government that showed the leadership to take those actions during the summer.

It has been a time when there have been issues which have challenged our fellow Australians. It has been a time when the government was focused on getting Australians who were doing it tough the assistance and support they needed. In fact, it was only today that we announced a national and permanent rolling commission into the issue of veterans' suicide, a heartbreaking issue affecting veterans, their families and their communities. There are so many issues, including the drought and others, that require the full attention of this House and the full attention of every member of the House. What was Labor focused on today in the face of these issues? It was focused on politicising the bushfire crisis we've just had. That's what we saw from the Leader of the Opposition today in question time. He tried to take credit retrospectively for the decisions and the leadership that the PM and the government have made over the last few months.

Not only are the PM and the government showing leadership when it comes to issues where we need to support our fellow Australians, they're doing it on economic management too. We as a government know that if you don't show leadership on economic resilience then you can't be there to support your fellow Australians when they really need it. That is where it is chalk and cheese between this government and the Labor opposition. Employment growth is more than three times what we inherited from Labor. We are one of only 10 developed nations in the world to retain a AAA credit rating. There have been more than 1.5 million jobs created for our fellow Australians, above and beyond what Labor ever managed to achieve. There has been a balanced budget after years of Labor deficit so that when our fellow Australians needed our support, we could be there with the financial assistance that they needed.

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