Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister update the House on how the government is building a stronger and more secure Australia? Is the Prime Minister aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. She's part of a strong team that is building a stronger Australia, a stronger economy—a stronger and safer Australia, where Australians can live in a secure nation, both today and into the future. We not only have the record of achieving that, whether it's the more than 1.2 million jobs or unemployment coming down to five per cent, or the very fact that over the last 4½ years there has not been a single successful venture by an illegal boat to Australia—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

we have the record—importantly, we have the plans to ensure that it stays that way.

But, if the leader of the Labor Party gets his way, he will change it all. The Labor Party will change it all if they get the opportunity to occupy the treasury benches—change it all when it comes to financial management, change it all when it comes to the strength of our economy, change it all when it comes to the safety and security of our nation. Under the leader of the Labor Party, they will make Australia weaker.

Under this government, under my government, we will continue to make Australia stronger, whether it's the economy or the essential services that Australians rely on. Record bulk-billing rates, record hospitals funding, record aged-care funding, record schools funding—all of these depend on the strong economy that our government have been presiding over now for the last 5½ years. Labor will change it all, with over $200 billion in higher taxes over the next decade, which will suffocate our economy. It will hit retirees. It will hit home owners. It will hit renters. It will hit small and family businesses. It will hit wage earners. Labor will take $144 billion of income tax legislated by this parliament and they will cut it in half. That is what they're proposing to do.

But it's not just that. As we know, as we saw, when it comes to the safety and security of our nation, the leader of the Labor Party has already demonstrated in this place that he will weaken Australia's border security regime and he will weaken Australia's national security regime. Now, this is a Labor leader who had the opportunity to come in here and stand up for stronger border protection, and he did the exact opposite. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs who said very clearly that what this means is the 'effective unravelling of regional processes'. He said:

So for a reasonable first case basis you are looking at effectively the closure of regional processing and the transference of 1000 people on Manus.

That is what the leader of the Labor Party knowingly signed his opposition to when he came into this place. He had the advice, he ignored the advice, and that's why the leader of the Labor Party cannot be trusted to protect our borders and keep Australia safe.