Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline how the government is building a stronger economy, and what does a stronger economy mean for my constituents of Ford? What threats are there to future economic growth?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Forde for his question and recognise that as a member of the government he is a constant source of good advice to me and the government on good economic policy. When Labor were last in government and the Leader of the Opposition was minister for employment, there were only 3,600 jobs created in Australia every month. When Labor were last in government, there were only 3,600 jobs created in Australia every month. Last month, 38,000 jobs were created in Australia, more than 10 times the number created under the now Leader of the Opposition—10 times the number of new jobs created in one month compared to the number created under this Leader of the Opposition. So our economic plan is working.

When we came to government, we said that we had to stop writing out cheques to industry; we could not continue to pay out welfare cheques to people that were unfunded. We also said that it was unfair to Australian businesses to have tens of thousands of pages of regulation and red tape that they could never comply with but that they were burdened with. We got rid of that. We got rid of the carbon tax, we got rid of the mining tax and we are opening up the door for Australian businesses with new free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China. They are opportunities. They are the growth opportunities that Australians are crying out for in order to create the jobs of the future.

On top of all of that, we have the biggest infrastructure rollout in the history of the nation. We are putting more money into new, productive infrastructure than any other government in Australia's history. And we have delivered the real micro-economic reform so necessary to get the states moving, through an asset recycling program that has facilitated the sale of assets and the redeployment of that capital into new, productive infrastructure.

At the same time, we are building further infrastructure, the social infrastructure of the future, as evidenced by what just happened in the Senate today, when the Medical Research Future Fund bills were passed by the Senate. That is a $20 billion lasting endowment fund that is going to fund the medical research that will change the future of the nation forever. We know that if we save the money now, if we are careful and prudent with taxpayers' money, we can invest in the future of our nation and, as we have on this occasion, ensure that our children have an even better quality of life than we have today.