Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question and acknowledge his commitment to small business and lower taxes. Indeed, more than 50,000 members in his electorate are getting tax relief as a result of policies that we on this side of the House have supported.

It's easy to forget what the state of the economy was early on in this pandemic in 2020. We saw 1.3 million Australians lose their jobs or see their working hours go to zero. Treasury thought the employment rate could potentially reach as high as 15 per cent. We responded with programs like JobKeeper, which helped save more than 700,000 jobs. Today we have an unemployment rate at a 13-year low of 4.2 per cent, on track, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia, for a 50-year low, with a three in front of it. There are 1.7 million more Australians in work today than when Labor was in office, including one million more women in work today than when Labor was last in office. So we will continue to invest in infrastructure and skills programs and to cut taxes to deliver this strong economy.

Our approach is in stark contrast to that of those opposite, because this Leader of the Opposition has never held a Treasury portfolio. This Leader of the Opposition, this leader of the Labor Party, has never delivered a budget. Indeed, his economic policies consist of a $6 billion cash-splash to pay people who have already had the jab. He wants to support the economic recovery with a national drivers licence as well, and he wants to remove the fuel excise—wait for it!—on electric vehicles. That is the state of the Leader of the Opposition economic roots. There is no excise on electric vehicles. The Leader of the Opposition talks a big game from opposition, but, in government, Labor deliver something very, very different.

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