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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the Morrison government's stable and certain economic plan is enabling Australians and their families to plan for their futures with confidence?

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

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. Unlike many other countries around the world today, the Australian economy continues to grow, despite the headwinds that Australians know that our economy is facing and the challenges that we have here at home—in particular, the drought that has taken almost nine per cent off farm GDP over the last 12 months. While these headwinds are holding many other countries back, whether it be the United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea or Germany, who all recently experienced negative quarters of growth, the Australian economy this year has been growing at half a per cent each quarter throughout this calendar year.

These pressures being faced are understood by Australians, but they've always been understood by our government as well. That is why our disciplined economic plan has been investing in the Australian economy not just for today but for the future, to ensure that the benefits of our investments are not a generation of debt but a generation of economic opportunity provided by disciplined financial management delivering much-needed infrastructure and relieving the tax burden of Australians.

Since the election alone, this financial year and next year some $9½ billion of additional investment and support into the Australian economy has been delivered by this government. That's $9½ billion which constitutes the tax relief through the tax cuts that we provided and legislated in this place through to the additional support we're providing through our drought stimulus and drought support measures, which are much needed in rural and regional communities. On top of that, there is the $3.8 billion of additional bring-forwards and additional investment in infrastructure, which includes things like the Darlington upgrade and the Flinders Link in the electorate of the member who asked me the question. And $1.8 billion of that investment is in infrastructure. It is of the here and now. It is in this year and next year: $1.8 billion to ensure that we are bringing forward the projects.

This has been achieved through cooperation with state and territory leaders around the country. Straight after the election I wrote to all of them and said, 'Let's work together to get these projects brought forward.' There was no hurried panic. There was no trying to cobble together figures on a weekend. There was careful assessment and cooperation with state and territory governments of all political persuasions to ensure we could arrive at these important investments. They have now been announced. Those state governments will be rolling out those projects. Whether it's the $1.3 billion extra in Queensland or the $900 million or thereabouts extra in Western Australia and elsewhere around the country, these investments will strengthen the Australian economy. This is being done while keeping our AAA credit rating, bringing the budget back into surplus, paying down the debt and not increasing taxes.