Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I will not be distracted by the jeers and the jibes from those on the other side. They have nothing to add to this discussion. They have nothing to add because they are all fluff and wind—that is how I would describe them.

They are the anti-jobs mob. They are the anti-leadership mob. They are already the mob that have no idea what they are going to take into the next election. Mr Abbott, of course, wanted to be known—and is known—as the infrastructure Prime Minister. He has a $50 billion infrastructure program to improve road and rail links. They are going to reduce travel times and support economic growth. Mr Abbott was in my own state of South Australia—a state, might I say, that is struggling under the yoke of 16 years' worth of Labor rule—this morning, pledging to support infrastructure and road and rail links, to reduce travel times and to support economic growth.

And, of course, Mr Abbott pledged to be the lower-taxing Prime Minister. What has he done? He has implemented tax cuts for small business, under the stewardship of the small business minister, Mr Bruce Billson, a man who has taken a passion for small business into cabinet—a place where the other side never had it. Small business is the engine room and the driver of employment and growth in our economy.

And whilst we are focusing on ridding regulation and bureaucratic bungling from small business, interfering with them creating jobs and making a business for themselves, those on the other side are all full of enquiry into the political intrigues of the day. This is where their focus is completely wrong—absolutely and completely wrong! Whilst they are focused on the minutiae, we are looking at the big picture and implementing a program that will see Australia prosper for decades to come under the stewardship of the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott.

I must also bell the cat here, because despite all the achievements that we have already enacted in getting the budget back into the black and making government smaller, funding for local hospitals is up by over 25 per cent over the next four years and funding for schools is up by 28 per cent over the next four years. That is because Prime Minister Abbott and his team are committed to local hospitals and to local health, and they are committed to the highest standards of education. Of course, with new childcare subsidies, working families with incomes of just over $65,000 and under $170,000 will be around $30 per week better off. These are important advancements for the families of Australia—better-educated children, better health care and assistance with child care affordability.

But there are broader concepts that the Abbott government has been leading the way in. And I have to suggest that one of the most important things that we can do is to stamp out and to root out corruption in the governance of the militant trade union movement, which is impacting on our progress in this country. There has been a royal commission established into trade union governance on the back of the cover-ups for Mr Craig Thomson. Do you remember him, Mr Deputy President? Mr Craig Thomson was the disgraced former member of the previous government, who embezzled a whole bunch of money from his union. They protected him and refused to drag him before the courts. But now he has been convicted.

There is also evidence of corruption in the trade union movement—of coercion and all sorts of shenanigans going on. None of this would have been uncovered without the insistence of Mr Abbott to get a good deal for the workers of this country. Because if you are not fighting for the workers you are fighting against them. And we are fighting for them. We are saying, 'If your union dues go into a union then they should be used appropriately.'

We have also dumped Labor's bank deposit tax. Do you remember that one, Mr Deputy President? That was when you put money in the bank and they were going to tax you on it. And when you took money out of the bank they were going to tax you on it—on the interest that you earned—because Labor are the big taxers. We have dumped that under the leadership of Mr Abbott. And we have also looked much further abroad. We have looked at the white paper on Northern Australia—we have released that. That is a comprehensive plan to unleash the economic potential of the region.

These are only a few—a few—of the many achievements of Mr Abbott in leading the government. It is not to say that leading any organisation—but particularly the nation—is not without challenge. And where those challenges have been thrown down we have handled them with aplomb. We have dealt with the vicissitudes of public life—the highs and the lows—and we have managed to keep ploughing on for the benefit of the people of Australia. It is absolutely imperative that we continue on the program, and we cannot afford to allow a Labor government to sneak back into power under the guise of falsehoods and misleading impressions. That is why we should be proud of this economic record— (Time expired)