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

I was in those meetings where we were faced with the prospect—the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brendan Murphy said—that we could potentially lose tens of thousands of Australians within months, if not weeks. I was there when we were very worried about the prospect of having businesses close their doors not just for the downturn but, potentially, permanently. We put in place urgent and necessary and responsible measures to make sure that we kept the doors of business open, that we kept the economy going and, most importantly, that we kept Australians alive.

But we didn't just stop there. We also kept vaccines getting out to Pacific island nations. We played our part as a good neighbour should. We played our part in making sure that, indeed, we kept homes being built through the construction industry, through HomeBuilder. I heard the member opposite talking about wages. We have the highest minimum wage in the world, and that's a fact that not a lot of those opposite often espouse. We should be extolling the virtues of that. We are very lucky.

A lucky country isn't just there by good luck; it's there by good management. For nine years, this country was under very good management under the successive Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments. Just have a look at what three years of getting it done did. We had 815,600 female business operators and 220,000 trade apprentices. It was a record high. Indeed, 71.3 per cent of trade and exports were covered by free trade agreements. When we got into government, that percentage was in the 20s. It was very low. What we made sure of was the fact that we were getting our trade, all of those wonderful agricultural and resource exports, to the world. Australia was very much open for business after years of neglect by those opposite when Labor was last in power. Electricity bills went down eight per cent in the past two years, but what do we hear from those opposite? We hear 97 promises leading up to the election of power bills going to be reduced by up to $275. I wonder when that's going to happen. Not in the immediate future, let me tell you!

An honourable member interjecting—

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