Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I picked two out of three. Where is the money for the Princes Highway West duplication between Waurn Ponds and Winchelsea? We are talking about $42 billion and you cannot even keep a commitment like that. I will be interested to hear what he says, although I suspect that Mr Cheeseman will not be speaking on this matter either.

The one key issue in this package is jobs, and it is the one thing that is missing from this package. It should be about jobs, yet there is nothing in this $42 billion package about jobs. You cry crocodile tears for Australian workers. There is nothing in this package for jobs. Before I go any further, we on this side of the chamber would like to know what happened to the 75,000 jobs that were lauded as the outcome of the last $10 billion cash splash. Where are they? We have not heard a word about it. We heard Senator Evans today saying, ‘People are arguing over 35,000 or 45,000 jobs.’ The reality is that he has not come into this chamber and said whether the 75,000 jobs were created. Now he is trying to play it down to 35,000. Is it 35,000? Is it 10,000? Is it 15,000? Once again, that $10 billion did not create jobs, and this $42 billion package will not either.

Where is the assistance to small business to keep employment high? There is no mention of small businesses. Very few of them will benefit from this. We need a fiscal stimulus which invests in the Australian economy in a way that makes the whole economy more productive, efficient and competitive. Of course, that is why tax cuts are so effective—because every business and household in Australia benefits from them. We believe that an element of the stimulus package should be that it lowers the cost of employing Australians so that we can both retain jobs and promote jobs growth.