Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It's a great honour for me to be able to speak about the government's budget this year, which forms the expenditure in the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, and to reiterate what I think we've been speaking about in this place for nearly 18 months now, and that is the extraordinary economic outcomes that Australia has been able to achieve under the stewardship of the Morrison government.

We did a number of years of hard work to ensure that the Australian budget was able to get back into broad balance. That then ensured we had the fiscal fire power that the economy needed to commit $291 billion, nearly 15 per cent of GDP, in direct economic support for individuals, for households and for businesses throughout our country at the height of the pandemic.

It's quite remarkable, particularly when you consider comparable economies around the world, that there are now more people in work than there were when the pandemic hit, and that does not happen by accident. That has happened due to the economic stewardship led by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer to support businesses to support individuals, and now we're seeing the fruits of that support. What Australians saw in the budget was a budget that consolidated those gains, that kept our foot on the economic accelerator to ensure we could lock in those gains and move forward.

At the centrepiece of this year's budget, which Australians are seeing as characteristic of the Morrison government, we saw tax relief. We saw that more than 10 million low- and middle-income earners will enjoy a tax cut. For single income families with the low- and middle-income tax offset that's $1,080 in savings, and for dual income families that's $2,160. This, in the end, puts more money in Australians' pockets. It enhances aggregate demand, and we're very keen to see the fruits of that tax relief very soon.

What we've also seen throughout the pandemic, going back to emergency measures put in place last year, is the benefits of temporary full expensing, and we saw that they were extended in the budget. What temporary full expensing has done, and I think every member in this place, even members opposite begrudgingly would need to admit, is the order books of the country are being filled, and every single Australian based manufacturer or business will tell you that. This measure supports 99 per cent of businesses with a turnover threshold of $5 billion, ensuring that it covers some 11½ million employees. So there are 11½ million Australians working in businesses where temporary full expensing is ensuring that their customers are demanding their products, and that is one of the reasons why we can now say again that we have more Australians in work today than at the beginning of the pandemic.

In the budget we've also put in place a number of measures to enhance homeownership. We obviously did an incredible job during the pandemic in turning around the quite frightening situation for the residential construction industry, with over half a billion jobs being at risk. The HomeBuilder program led to the industry being at least 32½ per cent busier than they were at the beginning of the pandemic, so we've not only protected those jobs but we've grown those jobs.

We have built on that as well in the budget with the Family Home Guarantee, which will support single-parent families to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as two per cent. We've increased First Home Super Saver Scheme contributions from $30,000 to $50,000, again helping first home buyers with the most critical aspect of making that purchase—getting a deposit together. We have put in place the JobTrainer Fund, which is providing 163,000 new job-training places. Then there is the patent box. This has not been significantly remarked upon in the media, but I think it's going to drive huge economic advances in this country. There's $110 billion for infrastructure and $1.7 billion to enhance child care. This budget locks in those gains, keeps our foot on the economic accelerator and gets more Australians into jobs. (Time expired)

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