Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry, representing the Minister for Jobs and Innovation. Will the minister update the House on the progress the government is making in supporting jobs and growth in the economy? Minister, what would be the outcome of pursuing less economically responsible ideas?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fairfax for his question, because he, like many members of this House, is delighted with the progress that the government is making in terms of jobs and growth in our economy. The May figures for jobs, for example, show that the government is on track to create and support 1,031,000 jobs since we were elected in September 2013—in fact, seeing unemployment drop down to 5.4 per cent. We promised in 2013 that we'd create a million jobs in the first two terms of a coalition government. We've actually achieved that about seven or eight months ahead of schedule because of the policies of this government driving jobs and growth. We've reduced unemployment and we've increased the number of jobs, so all of those people are working, paying taxes, being full members of our economy and our society. In fact, the national accounts also showed recently that growth for the last quarter was at one per cent, 3.1 per cent for the year, so we are actually not just promising jobs and growth but we are delivering jobs and growth as we said we would. The Australian economy's now back on track after six years of listless government under the previous Labor administration, and the public are clearly getting the benefits of that through higher wages and by paying less tax under this government.

The Labor Party cannot be trusted with the economy. The Leader of the Opposition in particular cannot be trusted; nor can the public afford a Labor government. Their policy is, as the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services outlined earlier in question time, $200 billion worth of new taxes hitting everybody across the board. Their latest target, of course, is retirees and pensioners, the most vulnerable income earners in the economy. They are on fixed incomes. They've arranged their affairs to be able to take care of themselves. They have worked hard their whole lives and helped build this country, yet pensioners and retirees are the target of this vicious Leader of the Opposition and Labor Party.

We talk to the voters in our electorates when we go back, and they are quite worried. Why should they be made to be frightened at this stage of their lives? Ironically, those people who can afford to change their affairs will not be hit by the Leader of the Opposition's policy. Ironically, he has tried to start a class war when the people who will be most hurt will be people on low incomes and pensioners who cannot rearrange their affairs. He can't even rearrange a class war. So those who can afford to rearrange their affairs will do so and those on the lowest incomes will be hurt under this Leader of the Opposition.