Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Having listened to the member for Rankin for 10 minutes, I'm somewhat bemused at the framing of the MPI. The member for Rankin spoke almost entirely on the government's intention to remove JobKeeper at some stage later this year. If more intellectual honesty had been put into the MPI, perhaps he might garner some support from this side of the floor, particularly from regional and rural representatives. But that's not what he did. What he did was put a fairytale as the first section of an MPI that was in two parts—firstly, 'the government's mismanagement of the economic crisis' and, secondly, a 'lack of a comprehensive plan for the recovery'.

But for this government, but for the plans of this government through JobKeeper and jobseeker, Australia would be in a world of hurt. Labor's constituents and many of the people who voted for Labor—hundreds and thousands of them—engaged in those programs. Why? It was because they were needed. Why? It was because it was good policy. As the member for Rankin said, it put food on the table. As my colleague said, it paid the rent. How can that side of the floor criticise this government for making good policy and keeping people in contact with their employers so that, when we get through this, there will be jobs for them? And that is exactly what has happened. There are many companies and businesses out there who are now saying: 'We don't need JobKeeper. Thank you for it, but we don't need it.' I have been out there. I have spoken to businesses. I have spoken to people on the street. I have received emails from the people of those opposite, saying: 'I don't normally vote for your side of politics, but thank you. Thank you for putting out JobKeeper. Thank you for putting out jobseeker.' For the Labor Party to sit on their side and criticise, it is just fanciful. In the first sentence of the storybook, Chicken Little walks outside and starting telling everybody that the sky is falling.

Now, in addition, what we have is a policy to go forward. How can the Labor Party say that there is no planning for the future? We have $9 billion of infrastructure, $1.5 billion of which came out this week alone. There is JobMaker. We are putting jobs back out there. We are creating the environment for that. Politicians don't make jobs. They create the environment for jobs to be made, and that is what this government is doing. It is investing $9 billion to bring forward infrastructure projects through my electorate—

See this speech in context