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

My question is to the Treasurer. How does a stronger economy create more jobs for Australians, including those in my electorate of Forde, and is the Treasurer aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question. Like everyone on this side of the House, we are as pleased as that a million jobs have been created in this country since the election of the coalition government. A million jobs. That's what was promised and that's what's been delivered five months ahead of schedule. A million jobs. A million Australians going out there seeking work and finding it in businesses that are growing, expanding and creating jobs for Australians all around the country, including in the member for Forde's electorate. There were 415,000 jobs created last year; 75 per cent of them, according the Australian Bureau of Statistics, full-time jobs—some 32,700 full-time jobs in the most recent employment statistics.

Now, all of this comes about because Australian businesses are going out there, investing and growing, and they've got the right set of conditions, the right environment and the right policy settings to do exactly that. Our plan for a stronger economy—the plan for a stronger economy that we set out again in this year's budget—is about backing businesses to create local jobs. That's what it's about. Those opposite, the Labor Party, want to attack business; they want to put their taxes up. They think that somehow that's going to incentivise them to create jobs. We know that putting reduced pressure on businesses enables them to go out there and create those jobs. Just like True Blue Glass, who I visited with the member for Forde at Loganholme in his electorate last week, a family business with less than $5 million in turnover and 25 employees. Under this government, they're described as a small business. Their turnover is between $2 million and $10 million. They get the instant asset write-off, which has been extended for a further year. They get to do GST on a cash basis. They get full depreciation. We believe they're a small business; the Labor Party thinks they're a multinational.

It's no different with Coxon's Radiator Service in the member for Capricornia's electorate, a great Australian business run by Julie and Gary. They have a turnover of almost $50 million a year. They employ 35 people. They're not a multinational; they're a great Australian regional small-business success story. And do you know who their biggest clients are? They're BHP and Glencore. And do you know who's going to benefit from all businesses in this country paying more-competitive rates of taxes? Coxon's Radiator Service in Rockhampton. That's who's going to benefit, because we have a plan for a stronger economy over the next decade. We knew that, as a government with the right set of policies, a million jobs could be created in this place. The member for McMahon didn't believe it could happen. He said that we would fall well short of our solemn pledge. Well, the solemn pledge of a million jobs has been delivered by the Turnbull government.