Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer inform the House on how the strength of the Morrison government's economic plan is continuing to generate new jobs across Australia and deliver lower taxes for Australian families while ensuring our economic recovery is stronger and faster than expected? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for North Sydney for his question and acknowledge in this place his experience as a local councillor and as a strong advocate for his electorate, where more than 60,000 people are getting a tax cut as a result of policies supported by people on this side of the House. I had the great opportunity to join the honourable member in his electorate recently, in Cammeray, for a community forum to discuss the budget.

In the face of the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression, the Australian economy is recovering strongly. Unemployment is down, growth is up and our economy has outperformed nearly every other major economy around the world. Indeed, the Australian economy today is larger than it was going into the pandemic. Because of the policies of the Morrison government, there are more people in work today than there were before the pandemic began. We saw, in the March quarter national accounts, farmer output, off the back of a strong winter crop, at its highest level in seven years. We saw dwelling investment, off the back of the HomeBuilder program, at its strongest level in 17 years. Our immediate expensing provisions, allowing businesses to go and buy machinery and equipment, saw purchases and investment in machinery and equipment over recent quarters at its strongest level in 18 years. If you take the last three-quarters of economic growth, this is the strongest growth that Australia has seen in more than 50 years. This is a sign that our economic plan is working.

I am asked whether there are any alternative approaches. We know that those opposite not only want to tax more with their $387 billion of higher taxes but they also want to spend more, because they wanted the JobKeeper program to keep going. The member for Rankin said: 'Cutting JobKeeper today will have diabolical consequences.' The Leader of the Opposition, the economic novice over there, said JobKeeper was the 'only support that was keeping the economic roof from crashing down'. The Leader of the Opposition also said that 'ending JobKeeper would have a devastating impact on the economy'. Well, the news for the Leader of the Opposition is that, since the end of JobKeeper, unemployment has come down; 84,000 new jobs have been created since the end of JobKeeper; and nearly one million new jobs have been created since the pandemic began last year.

We on this side of the House stand for lower taxes and we're delivering lower taxes. We stand for more jobs and we're delivering more jobs. Only the Leader of the Opposition is a threat to the strong national economic recovery.