Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It isn't The Audacity of Hope from the Leader of the Opposition, is it? It's not really a positive, forward-leaning agenda for Australia and its future that we hear from him. Indeed, you wouldn't expect that from an opposition leader on a day when we've reached 70.1 per cent of double-dose vaccinations Australia-wide. There's no mention of the fact that Australians are leaning in and working together in this pandemic, with the support of the government—with the support of states and territories and the Commonwealth, through our national cabinet—to get through this pandemic in better shape than any other country in the world. And it is not just in a health sense, where we've been able to save 30,000 lives. Thirty thousand human beings have been saved because of the approach that our country has been able to put together, the work we've done together and the difficulties and sacrifices that people have made on behalf of each other. It is an outstanding result.

When we think about what Australians have contributed, we understand that this is going to be a difficult time as we recover and move out of the pandemic. It is the case that the government has spent enormous amounts of time working with our community to make sure we support our economy as we get through this difficult period. That's why you've seen programs like JobKeeper, JobSeeker, the cash flow boost and HomeBuilder—programs to keep the economy moving while we've been in this extraordinary and unprecedented time when government has had to limit the ability of people to work and to operate society normally. We've done that because we know that at the heart of our society is a strong economy and that our economy and the success of our economy are vital for each and every individual, their family and their business, all around this country.

As we move out of the pandemic and we go into the economic recovery phase, what kind of government we have will determine our success in recovering as we move forward. That's the question on people's minds. How can we get our business back on its feet? How can we get our family back on its feet? How can we get our mental health and wellbeing back on their feet? All of it is integrated with the success of people being able to go to work, being able to return to schools, being able to get back to life, being able to plan and think forward, and being able to socialise with each other and work together as communities and families. That's why the government is fully focused on our program to ensure we support that recovery. We heard from the Leader of the Opposition constant criticism of every feature of government policy and constant criticism of everything he thinks is wrong with society. We heard nothing, of course, about what he would do differently. In fact, we heard very little about how a Labor government would support families, individuals and businesses in that recovery process.

There's one thing, though, that he's consistent on. He's consistent on the fact that the Labor Party would use, and would continue to use, the Australian taxation system as its primary vehicle for delivering its policy outcomes. He even said so in his speeches: 'taxes, not technology'. He said that revenue is raised from taxes. That is true. It is, for government. But there's something out there called the private sector. Sometimes we call it a 'sector', but, actually, the private sector is what determines our success as a society. It's more than just a sector. It's more than just a place to collect taxes from. If it doesn't do well, if it doesn't thrive, if it is penalised and punished by oppressive government taxation and regulation, Australia will not thrive and do well. So, when the Leader of the Opposition comes in here and continues to say, 'Well, don't you know that taxes are where we get technology from,' he's missing something very important. If we don't have the right mix of tax incentives and the right plan to get to net zero by 2050, we will not attract private sector investment in this country that will be sustainable and that will be felt as a positive in our region.

Why is the government taking the time to make sure that our plan is the right one for regions and rural communities? Because we know that so much of our economic activity has been built off our productivity in rural and regional areas and that any regime internationally which punishes Australian regions must be dealt with by an Australian government first, as a primary consideration. That's what the government is taking the time to do. If we look carefully at what the Leader of the Opposition just said, he's referring back to the fact that, at the core of Labor policy—the Labor way—he wants to use the Australian taxation system to force changes in behaviour. We've seen this movie before. The Labor Party continues to demonstrate that it does not understand: 'Taxation 1', 'Taxation 2', 'Taxation 3'—the sequels are worse than the original. The Australian public continues to reflect on the fact that they do not want governments to punish them for their life choices.

We can do this with technology—not through taxes. The government is right to use technology to get us to where we need to go, because technology represents that great hope that Barack Obama was talking about. We don't hear it from the Leader of the Opposition. There's no audacity in his speech, because he doesn't want to focus on the hope of humanity, human progress and advancement, which require the least amount of government in people's lives and the least amount of taxation and regulation that you can possibly put forward for people on business and on society, so people can make genuine choices and can make the right choices and do what they think is right for the planet and the climate. We know that people will do that when they're incentivised to do so—not when they're punished and not when the taxation system is used. But we know one thing about the last 13 years, and that is that Labor is addicted to taxes and continues to be addicted to taxes.

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