Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The clock needs to be extended, Mr Acting Deputy President. I will explain to Senator Bilyk afterwards what the significance of my 'Bananas in Pyjamas' comment was—I watched them on television in Singapore recently.

Let us have a look at what we came into government to do. We said we would get rid of the shocking mining tax—a tax that was earning no income. We did it. We said we would get rid of the carbon tax and return money to Australian consumers and return confidence to the Australian electricity system. We have done it. We said that we would turn the boats around and take control of our borders again. We have done it. We said we would repair the budget—and who is standing on the hose of that process?

The question becomes one of how this government is performing. Let me spell it out. We have reduced that shocking projected debt, moving to $600 billion, by $300 billion. With infrastructure, we have committed $50 billion which will leverage up to $125 billion. We are already seeing it around Australia—something Labor was never capable of doing. On the state reforms and asset recycling, which were the first two territories or states to put their hands up for this asset recycling? The Labor led ACT and the Labor led South Australian governments. Isn't that amazing! We have privatised Medibank Private to put those funds back into working for the Australian community. We have got rid of 57,000 pages of red tape, with a saving of $2 billion a year. With Mr Andrew Robb, who is back on a plane now, incidentally, we have managed to put together three free trade agreements with three of our most important trading partners. A trillion dollars of environmental approvals, some 300 major projects, are all now underway. Last time around, Labor could not do it. We have reintroduced an employee share scheme to operate from 1 July—once again giving employees in businesses in this country the opportunity to share even further in the benefits. We have removed 100 Labor tax measures that went back to 2002.

So where are we are now in terms of business confidence? Business confidence and consumer confidence are back at their long-term averages. Retail trade is going upwards. Housing approvals are the best in 10 years. Where are the barnacles? If there are barnacles, who contaminated the waters? Who roughened the hull of this ship called 'Australia'? This mob on the other side did it. We are in a situation now where our terms of trade have deteriorated relative to the terms of trade experienced by the former government. Can you imagine for a minute if this crowd were let back in charge of the purse strings? It would be a catastrophe.