Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just have to compose myself and control my mirth at the comment that the Shorten government is ready, willing and able with all the policies to go ahead. It's so far from the truth it really is laughable.

I'm very proud to be a member of a party in government that has achieved such magnificent things for Australia and Australians in the last several years. Senator Bilyk talked about significant economic policies. I'll tell you what the most significant economic policy of the Turnbull government has been, and that is that more than 412,000 jobs were created in the last 12 months. That's 412,000 of our fellow Australians who now have a job. Since the coalition government came into power four or five years ago, the number of jobs created is something like over one million. If I can put that in perspective, for one million of our fellow Australians who under six years of Labor did not have a job—with the good economic management of the coalition government those one million of our fellow Australians now have a job.

Since September 2015 the number of Australians who were unemployed has fallen by over 60,000. The unemployment rate has fallen from 6.1 per cent under Labor to about five per cent under the coalition. In the last year of office for Labor, unemployment rose by 33,000. No wonder I laughed when Senator Bilyk said that the Shorten government was ready to govern! There'd be another 33,000 Australians unemployed if the Labor Party were ever able to implement the policies they've spoken about.

We heard in question time the crocodile tears of the Greens political party about one child on Manus Island. But I'm delighted that under a coalition government we have saved upwards of 1,200 people, many of them children, from death by drowning, which occurred under the policies of the Labor Party, supported by the Greens. They don't seem to worry about the 1,200 whom we know were drowned—and many more thousands, I suspect, that we will never know of. They're very concerned about one child but can't bring themselves to thank the coalition government for stopping the deaths of 1,200 people who died from drowning.

We have secured the borders, and we've saved lives in doing it. We've got 8,000 children out of detention in Australia, children who were put there by the Labor Party, supported by the Greens political party. Yet they complain about a dozen or so children on Manus Island—who are not in detention but in open living arrangements on that island. The Greens would carry on about them when, under Labor—the party they support—there were literally thousands of children in detention in Australia, all released, all taken out of detention by successive coalition governments.

The other thing I'm very proud of this government for is the tax policy. Remember that after the last budget Labor Party people around Australia were running the mantra—no doubt directed by that great intellect Mr Shorten—that there was nothing in it for the people of Herbert or for the people of Kennedy, two electorates that I'm very involved in. But they forgot about the 70,000 people in the electorate of Herbert who are paying less tax today than they were on 30 June because of the activities of the Turnbull government in reducing taxes for all Australians. And I'm very proud about the boost given to small business in this country through our taxation regime and our instant asset write-off. We all know that it is small business that creates jobs for Australians. That's why in the last 12 months over 400,000 new jobs have been created—not by government but by government-supported small and medium businesses. One of this government's signature economic achievements is the help it's given to small business, which has enabled small business to employ more people and to invest in their businesses, which again makes it easier for people to get jobs.

I'm also pleased with what we've done in the health sphere. We as a government have provided affordable access to over $9 billion worth of new, life-saving medicines. These listings, which were announced in recent times, slashed the cost of medicines to sufferers of diabetes, asthma, arthritis, cancer, eye disease and hepatitis. These new drugs were able to be brought onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme because this government has been able to manage its money so that it has money available for those life-saving drugs that have meant so much. It is not often talked about. When we think about Medicare and health, all we remember is the lie of the Labor Party at the last federal election when they said that Medicare was to be sold. Everybody, including the Labor Party, knew that was a lie. But, if you say it often enough and you repeat it loudly enough to voters who don't really understand, you can change the result of an election, even on the basis of what is now accepted by everyone as an outright, absolute and abject lie. Yet what we think about when we talk about Medicare is 'Mediscare'. In fact, the real Medicare has never been stronger. We're investing more and more money in Medicare. Why? Because we can afford it, because we run the economy properly and because we watch the cents. If you watch the cents, you can save the dollars, and that's what we've done. We've increased Medicare funding, which will go up every year from $23 billion in 2017-18 to $24 billion in later years, to $26 billion and then to $28 billion in 2020-21. Spending under Labor was very, very static at about $19.5 billion in 2012-13. So you can see how, under coalition governments, we have been able to invest more in health.

I'd like to have more time to talk about the great success of coalition governments with free trade agreements. Labor fiddled around for eight years and did nothing. It was the same as their shipbuilding rhetoric. They were there for six years and didn't build a ship; they didn't even plan to build a ship. Under the coalition government, we are now building ships in Australia for the Australian Defence Force. On free trade agreements, Labor talked about them for six years and didn't sign off on one of them. Under the coalition government, there have been any number of free trade agreements, the most recent being the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has been wonderful for Australia, particularly for beef and sugar, two very significant export commodities from the north of Queensland, the area that I represent in this parliament. That Trans-Pacific Partnership has just been a wonderful exercise in increasing Australia's competitiveness overseas and allowing Australians to export more. That means, of course, that our businesses in those fields get bigger and better, and that enables us to provide real jobs for Australians.

Our government, the Turnbull government, and the coalition governments have been wonderful managers. They have made very significant economic advancement for this country. I'm proud to be part of it. I can only fear that at some time in the future the government will change. (Time expired)