Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister: Will the Prime Minister update the House as to how the government's economic plan is creating jobs for hardworking Australians, including those in my electorate of Chisholm? Is the Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. She's proud to be part of a government that is providing the economic leadership that is utterly lacking from members opposite and that is so necessary to ensure that Australians have the opportunities they deserve now and in the future. We are growing the economy and creating jobs—403,000 jobs last year, the largest jobs growth in any year on record. That strong economy enables us to fund all the services Australians need, whether it is education, whether it is health, whether it is infrastructure or whether it is national security.

Lower business taxes are vitally important to maintaining this momentum. We want to drive investment further, create more jobs and create more better-paid jobs. Planet Innovation is an advanced medical device manufacturer in the honourable member's electorate. It's created more than 100 jobs in the last 18 months by tripling its exports. They now want to use or take advantage of the lower business taxes we've delivered to increase investment, expand exports further and create more jobs. Their experience is matched by that of thousands of firms around the nation. That's what our business tax cuts for small and medium businesses are delivering: more investment, more jobs, more economic growth.

The Leader of the Opposition announced at a dinner with the BCA recently that he was going to take them on. He was declaring war on business. Well, we've just seen—my previous answer—how jumbled his efforts are. His motives definitely are to take on business, but he's not just holding business back; he is going to destroy jobs. Look at what they're doing with water right now. Labor is going to vote with the Greens to withdraw their support for the Basin Plan, a once bipartisan plan of which the member for Watson was a great supporter. When we lost government in 2007 the responsibility for water went from me over to the Labor Party—first Senator Wong, then the member for Watson, who became a great supporter of the Basin Plan. And he's now going to vote down in the Senate the outcome of the Northern Basin Review that he initiated, and immediately destroy hundreds and subsequently thousands of jobs. He's going to create financial and investment uncertainty and threaten jobs right across the basin. And of course it's not just there, but right across the country. What about their war on the Galilee Basin? Labor has abandoned the people they claim to represent. They've abandoned the workers of Australia. (Time expired)