Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I hadn't even started and he was interjecting. Taree, Bathurst, Orange, Cranbourne, Tamworth, Kalgoorlie, Shepparton—what do they have in common? They are all around a population of 40,000. That is the number of people that, when in government, the coalition saved through our policies and our spending initiatives during the worst of COVID global pandemic—40,000 people. I hear the Treasurer often ask: what does Australia have to show for all the spending by the coalition government? I'll tell you what it has to show? It is people's lives. It was 700,000 livelihoods, the jobs of Australians that were at risk.

I was in the meetings at the outbreak of COVID-19. On 1 March I can remember James Kwan, a tourism operator in Perth, had passed away. He was the first of many thousands of Australians who lost their lives. We mourn for him now as we mourned for his family then. We put in place measures, through JobKeeper and all the other provisions, to make sure that people's lives and livelihoods were protected and preserved. That's what we did, and 40,000 lives have been protected. The Treasurer, the member for Hawke and others on that side ask: what did your spending provide?

'Nothing,' I hear from the member for McEwen! That's 40,000 lives. That's what it was. We don't apologise for the fact that we saved people's lives.

Stop pointing at me and yelling at me. Deputy Speaker, I ask you to pull him into order.

See this speech in context