Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Memo to those opposite: matters of public importance shouldn't be free kicks for the government, but this one is. Let me take the opportunity to punt at the goal. Let's talk about how the government has acted over the course of this parliament and this term in the interests of Australians. On jobs, 1.6 million jobs have been created since 2013. And, of course, those opposite know in their heart of hearts that there are 3.8 million people who would have suffered if it weren't for JobKeeper but who were supported.

An honou rable member interjecting—

Fighting the virus? The death rate in the US and the UK is 50 times higher than that in Australia. On economic recovery, we're the first advanced economy to have more people employed than we did pre COVID. There are currently 74,000 more people in employment today than there were pre COVID, and our net debt is around half of that of the UK or the US. On small business, we've provided tax relief to 3.4 million businesses, and we've expanded the instant asset write-off. Spending on equipment has increased to its fastest rate in seven years. On housing, there have been 130,000 HomeBuilder applications, a program that those opposite opposed and decried. New housing starts are the highest they've been in 20 years. We've delivered the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme to make sure people who want to get into a home can get into a home. On apprentices, we've delivered new wage subsidies for 170,000 apprenticeships on top of 100,000 already supported and the JobTrainer fund to support 450,000 places.

On tax, we're providing relief to 11 million Australian taxpayers. They're getting up to $2,745 in relief this year alone. Electricity prices are down 13.2 per cent since December 2018. On emissions, those opposite want to pretend they're the friend of a low-carbon economy when they don't even have a target for 2030, but it's our government that has driven down emissions to 19 per cent lower than 2005 levels. It's the lowest level since 1995, and we're investing $20 billion on clean tech. We've got a record investment in infrastructure—our $110 billion commitment—which includes but is obviously not limited to Western Sydney Airport, Melbourne Airport Rail and the Bruce Highway. We're driving up exports. We've had the largest trade surplus since 1920. We've got new export deals with the Pacific, Japan, Korea and Indonesia.

We are a more resilient Australia in response to the challenges of drought and bushfire. We have a stronger Defence Force. We've delivered on our commitment to grow the defence budget by two per cent of GDP. We're spending $270 billion over 10 years on defence capacity. On school funding, funding for schools has increased from $13.8 billion in 2014 to $23.4 billion in 2021. On better health care, funding for public hospitals has increased from $13.3 billion to $25.6 billion.

I say all of this because the Australian people are about to go through the exercise of contrast and compare. Well, that's our submission to the Australian people on what we've achieved. All they've got to go by is what happened under the last Labor government. Let me remind people who might be listening: there was the carbon tax; there was 'cash for clunkers'; there were overpriced school halls; there were pink batts that killed people; we saw defence spending at its lowest level since the 1930s; and the greatest shame of all, the greatest tragedy of all, was that we completely lost control of our borders. We ruined the Australian live cattle trade, and those opposite, quite frankly, didn't 'give a ship'. They gave not one commitment to build a ship in this country. They did not 'give a ship'—not one.

Before those opposite say, 'That was a former government; we'll be better after Anthony Albanese,' the reality is that his great plan to get into government, other than saying absolutely nothing, was a national driver's licence with which you could drive from Melbourne to Sydney—newsflash: you can do that today—and a $6 billion commitment to give $300 cheques to people who'd already taken the vaccine. Brilliant! I can't wait for the people of Australia to contrast and compare. I know the answer.

The DEPUTY SPEAK ER: The discussion is now concluded.

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