Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House why it is important that targets set by the government to meet key challenges are accompanied by plans to achieve them? How is the Morrison government continuing to outline plans to meet such targets?

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

I thank the member for Robertson for her question, because she understands that, to have a credible target, you have to have a credible plan to achieve it, and if you don't have a credible plan then that reflects poorly on the credibility of the target that has been set and, worse than that, it reflects terribly on the credibility of those who put forward such targets without a plan.

Our goals, the targets that we've set ourselves as a government over many years, have been accompanied by such plans—credible plans that we have taken to the Australian people on numerous occasions—and we have delivered on those plans. So we deliver on the targets that we set before the Australian people. We set ourselves a target at the last election that we'd be able to legislate to ensure that 94 per cent of Australians would not pay a marginal income tax rate more than 30 cents in the dollar. We had a plan to achieve that target, and we legislated that plan here in this place. Those opposite had it each way. They were against it and then they were for it; they were against it and then they were for it—backwards and forwards, as the each-way opposition leader always is.

We had a plan when we were first elected to create one million jobs, and more than 1½ million jobs have been created as a result of the credible economic plans of the government. We had a plan, as we took to the last election, to create another 1¼ million jobs. We had a plan to keep our AAA credit rating. Under this government, under extreme pressures in terms of global forces and domestic pressures with droughts and other things, we've been able to maintain that AAA credit rating as a result of the strong financial management of the government. We had a plan to stop the boats. It wasn't a goal; it was a plan. It was achieved, and it continues to be achieved under the strong policies of this government. We had a plan to expand our trade, and we have lifted the trade covered by export agreements under this government from 26 per cent to 70 per cent and have the first current account surplus in decades. We had a plan to rollout the NBN and to get 500,000 people into the NDIS, and we are delivering on that plan. We had a plan to increase the budget for defence to two per cent of GDP from the worst levels we've seen that we inherited from those opposite—prewar levels of investment for defence—and we are delivering on that plan and we are delivering on that target.

When we set targets, our government has plans to achieve them. That's why the Australian people trust this government to deliver on plans. At times like this, when we are putting plans in place to protect Australians from the coronavirus, they know that we will get through this because we have a plan. (Time expired)