Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how the government's plan for a strong economy enables the government to deliver and guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on, including in my electorate of Dunkley? What are the risks of alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Dunkley for his question. He knows, like all members on this side of the House, that this place too often gets caught up in the Canberra bubble. It too often gets caught up in talking about rumours, gossip, confected outrage and conflict. This is why Australians switch off from listening to what happens in this place, while those who want to stay fixated on the Canberra bubble just stay in that bubble.

But, on this side of the House, this is what we want to talk about—because this matters and this makes a difference outside the Canberra bubble—and that's jobs. Here's something that matters: unemployment has fallen to five per cent, the lowest level since April of 2012. Here's something that matters: 60,000 fewer people are unemployed today than at the last election. Here's something that matters: 2.3 per cent employment growth. That's up from 1.9 per cent at the last election and from 0.8 per cent when we took over running the Australian economy from the Labor Party. Here's another thing that matters—

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mr Pasin interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The members for Lalor and Barker will not yell at each other across the chamber. Otherwise, their conversation will continue outside the chamber. They're both warned.

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

Here's another thing that matters: 20,300 extra full-time jobs in the month of September, which go into the 1.15 million jobs that have been created since the election of our government back in 2013. That's 150,000 more than were promised. We promised a million, and we've delivered 1.15 million. Why? Because we've been backing Australians in small and family businesses all around this country. And here's another thing that matters: in this parliament, because of the initiative of our government, small businesses and family businesses will be paying 25c tax in the dollar under the plan that we legislated this week.

Our government is getting on with it. Our government is delivering—whether it's for small and family businesses or whether it's delivering the infrastructure that matters—and we are able to deliver because we're getting things done and we are focusing on making our economy strong. I'll tell you what a strong economy looks like: the unemployment rate at five per cent and jobs growth of 1.15 million over the last five years. When you can do that, you can pay for affordable medicines, you can pay for schools, you can pay for hospitals, you can support our veterans and you can support aged care with $1 billion extra every year in investment into aged care. Our government is not stuck in the Canberra bubble like the Leader of the Labor Party. We are stuck in getting on with the job of delivering for Australians.