Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the progress the government is making to improve the budget position and how important is a strong budget to economic growth and jobs?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes, my colleague from the Shire, for his question. I am very pleased to get a question which is asking about the budget but also about growth and jobs. As the Acting Prime Minister has just said, the unemployment rate in this country is now at 5.9 per cent. That is something that we welcome but, most importantly, we congratulate those Australians who got those jobs, who put themselves out there to get those jobs. We congratulate the businesses who have shown the confidence in our economy to go and put people in those jobs last month, as they have been doing for some time now.

More Australians are getting into work. Some 366,400 extra jobs have been created since this government came to office—315,000 in just the last year alone. That is the highest rate of jobs growth we have seen over a year in 7½ years, since the end of the GFC. As I said, that unemployment rate has gone down to 5.9 per cent and we welcome that. But I say this: we are even more excited about the fact that the youth unemployment rate has fallen to 12.2 per cent—that is, lower than it was at the last election. There are more young people in jobs today as a result of the strong policies of this government. We have seen that figure fall. After peaking in November 2014 at 14½ per cent, it has come down now to 12.2 per cent.

To ensure that you stay on a path for growth and jobs and more jobs, you need to ensure many things. You need a strong national infrastructure plan—a $50-billion national infrastructure plan—and you need a better tax system. But the other thing you need is a strong budget and this government, since it has come to office, has implemented $64 billion in savings measures to get the budget under control, to control expenditure. That is how you manage a budget. You do not do it by putting up taxes; you do it by managing and controlling your expenditure.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite interject on the issue of taxes. Last time we changed the tax system, we cut taxes. We cut income taxes. We cut state taxes. We cut taxes right across the board. I notice when those opposite came to office, they did not put those taxes back. They did not go back because they knew that when you have a tax system change that is done by a government that knows how to support jobs and growth, you do not go back and reverse those things and they never reversed any of them because—even though they would never admit it—the tax system changes of 2000 helped the economy and made for a stronger Australia.