Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Confected outrage, but I withdraw. He asked the Treasurer a question about jobs, about investment, about funding, about what we have done. These have been tough, difficult, challenging times, but the carry-on from those opposite does not resonate throughout the land. Small-business people are not thinking about what Labor is talking about. Mind you, they should be worried, because if Labor gets in there is $387 million worth of taxes just waiting. There's the sneaky petrol tax coming to a petrol browser near you. But look at the sorts of jobs that are in place now. There are more people in work now than there were pre COVID. There are certainly more people working now than there were when Labor was in power. One in eight manufacturing jobs were lost when Labor was in power. We're investing in apprenticeships, so we're investing in the future. We're investing in the instant asset write-off. We're investing in those businesses which keep our economy turning, whether they're in urban Australia or, indeed, in the powerhouse that you and I, Mr Deputy Speaker O'Brien, know well of regional Australia, because regional Australia has been fantastic during COVID, and it has been on the back of National Party and Liberal Party policies.

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