Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why do the Prime Minister's talking points make absolutely no reference to the 1.9 million Australians who are looking for a job or for more work, the worst wages growth on record, weak household consumption and retail spending, and the worst household savings rate in a decade?

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

I'm very pleased the member made reference to the talking points. I suspect we might want to make a habit of actually issuing these on a weekly basis because it was the first time I'd seen our policies faithfully reported in some publications for some period of time. What I notice about our talking points which they refer to is that you'll find a lot of detail on the extensive policy work and implementation that our government is doing. You can work through all of those documents, as I'd encourage those opposite to do. They might learn one or two things about how you reduce taxes, because that seems to be an anathema, because, when you pick up the Labor Party's talking points, what you'll hear about is higher taxes, not lower taxes. And, when you look at the second point, you can see that we want to reduce the cost of doing business, whether it's dealing with the clutter of environmental regulation, some of which is unnecessary, or the clutter of what is done around industrial legislation. You won't find that in Labor's talking points. What you'll find is more legislation and regulation which will increase the cost of doing business and take away people's jobs.

You won't find in there an acknowledgement of the need to actually deal with the skills challenges of this country in a serious way or an acknowledgement about how the system has been failing us right across the board and the need to properly reform that system, but you'll find it in ours. You won't find in there an enthusiasm for expanding the trade borders of our country. You won't find that in the Labor points, but you'll certainly find it in ours, and you'll also find the record of us achieving it—taking the amount of our trade covered by agreements from 26 per cent to 70 per cent under our watch and we're heading to 90 per cent. But what you will find is the dithering and the delay when it comes to the Labor Party, as they fought against many of those agreements we've been able to bring through this parliament and see them supported.

You won't find in there their support for our traditional industries, like mining and resources. You won't find that. Well, you might find it from the member for Hunter. You may well find that from the member for Hunter. I'm a bit worried that the member for Hunter seems to be losing the argument when it comes to sensible policy on emissions reduction. I invite him to bring his posse over here, because he's losing the argument on that side, because on that side they're not for responsible emissions reduction targets, which is what we took to the election; they're for reckless targets that cost people's jobs. What you'll find on their talking points are policies and ideas that will increase your taxes, blow the budget, cost you a job, ensure that they are pursuing an approach which has recklessness at its absolute core.

I'm very happy with what's in our talking points, because it sets out the big agenda that was endorsed by the Australian people, and we will continue to implement that agenda every single day.