Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased that Labor members have seen fit to bring forward this matter of public importance, because it talks about the plans that both of our parties have for the future. They're quite right: at the next election, coming up in the next few months, Australians will face an incredibly stark choice. There is a gulf of difference between the plans that this government have for the prosperity of our nation and the plans that Labor have for Australians, and Australians need to know the difference.

I think Australians understand what this government are about. They have seen us in the trenches over the last three years, keeping them safe from a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. They have seen us keep people in aged care safe. They have seen us roll out vaccines to vulnerable communities. They have seen us roll out booster shots. They have seen us close the borders quickly. And they have seen us take the hard decisions when needed so as to keep Australians safe. They have seen us support hundreds of thousands of jobs through the JobKeeper program, a program that has enabled us to have the economy firing as we come out of the pandemic, including heading towards a record low unemployment rate. They have seen us keep Australians safe when it comes to standing up to the coercion of other nations. And they have seen us tackling the difficult security environment that we face—one of the most difficult security environments faced by any government in a long, long time.

Meanwhile, Labor's plan for the future, Labor's plan for Australians, is a dark and depressing one. It's one where Australians don't feel safe. They don't feel safe to make choices for their families. They don't feel safe to plan for their future. They don't feel safe that their kids will have opportunity and hope. It's a future where a future Labor government have lost control of our borders, just like they did the last time they were in government because the opposition leader doesn't have the ticker to personally turn back a boat. As a consequence, people will die at sea—women and children. Australia's law enforcement and border patrol officers will be fishing bodies out of the sea on a daily basis. Billions is being spent locking up those who have been trafficked by people smugglers in their evil trade—just as Labor did when they were last in government. To pay those billions of dollars to lock people up because of people smugglers, because they've lost control of the borders, Labor are ripping it out of defence. They're ripping it away from Australia's serving men and women, just like they did when they were last in government, when defence spending was at the lowest levels since the 1930s.

They took money out of ASIO, the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission—the very agencies working to keep Australians safe on the front line every single day. In Labor's plan for the future, Australians are now less safe from foreign interference and less safe from criminal gangs and bikie gangs who would seek to do them harm. It gets worse. As those groups are allowed to flourish because Labor is ripping funds out of ASIO, the Criminal Intelligence Commission and the AFP, Labor is lacking the ticker to revoke visas of convicted criminals and send them back to their home nations where they hold citizenship. So these people continue to commit crimes against Australian citizens. This government has revoked 10,000 visas of convicted criminals. Labor couldn't manage even a tenth of that.

I haven't even got to Labor's vision of our economic future—one where they add taxes, like inheritance and death duties, the retiree tax and housing tax; where they undo the economic policies of this government that have created jobs; where they undo the HomeBuilder scheme, which is putting record numbers of first home buyers into their first homes; and where they undo our infrastructure investment, which is creating jobs and getting people out of traffic congestion and back to their homes and their families more safely and more quickly. The unions reign supreme again, causing inflationary pressures and cost increases that families have to deal with in the supermarket aisles. This is Labor's vision for the future. It's bleak and it's dark.

Australians at the next election in the next couple of months have a stark choice. Re-elect this coalition government to keep unemployment low, to keep our economy strong, to keep Australians and their families safe, and Australia's borders safe and standing up against economic coercion from other nations. (Time expired)

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