Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is again addressed to the Prime Minister. Former prime ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull all facilitated parliamentary debate at this time in the parliament on important economic issues facing the nation. Does the Prime Minister have the confidence in his economic position to be able to swallow his pride, follow their example and agree to a debate on the state of the economy today?

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

Every time, almost without exception, that I come to this dispatch box I talk about economic policies. The reason I do that, and the reason I did that at the last election, is because I know that the strong economy is absolutely essential to everything. It is ensuring that you have the right economic policies that provide the bedrock to create the budget that can guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on, and that's exactly what our government has been doing, in season and out. Despite what the global challenges are, we have continued to be able to build the strength and capability of our budget position but also of the Australian economy, which has seen now almost 1.5 million Australians get a job.

That is the greatest argument when it comes to the economic policies of this government: that's almost 1.5 million Australians who have got a job. That's the great evidence of almost 1.5 million lives of Australians that have been transformed as a result of the policies of this government that has set the framework in an economy for people to go and invest and to take people on. Australians' lives are being changed because the Liberals and Nationals believe that strong economic management, that disciplined and stable and certain financial policies, are what actually, at the end of the day, guarantee our ability to reach record levels of hospital funding and record levels of education funding. And in the midst of what is a very severe drought we could again today confirm that those who would be coming off the farm household allowance will be given a $13,000 payment as a supplementary payment and just over $7,000—7½ thousand dollars—for individuals, to continue to support them. And we're able to do this within the constraints of the budget that is being brought back to surplus—because, as I remarked in this place sometime ago, the Leader of the Opposition wants to have debates; I'm getting on with things. But how can the Leader of the Opposition even have a debate when he can't tell us what his tax policy is, what his climate change policy is or what his policy is on any of these other critical issues that he fails to answer questions on on a daily basis? He hasn't got a policy agenda. The reason we have to talk about their record in government and their policy agenda from the last election is that they haven't had any policies since that time. So it is absolutely fair for the Australian people to hold them to their record on the policies they took to the last election, and they were condemned for those policies by the Australian people at that time. We will continue to deliver the policies that were confirmed at the last election—policies that, over the last six years, have created almost 1.5 million jobs for Australians.