Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd just like to acknowledge the family of former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer here in the gallery. If Tim had been here, he would have understood the importance of not talking down our economy, whilst understanding the significant impact that the drought is having on GDP and the devastation that is occurring across much of western New South Wales and Victoria, affecting so many farmers.

If Australians had gone to the polls, as they did a few short months ago, and elected a Shorten government, we would've seen $387 billion of new taxes, and we know what impact that would've had on our economy. It certainly wouldn't have seen the continued positive growth in outlook and resilience in the economy and the improving business confidence that we're seeing with the re-election of the Morrison government. And only on the weekend we saw Wayne Swan, now the national president of the Labor Party, come out in support of keeping all the tax cuts that Labor took to the last election, saying that losing the election had nothing to do with the economic plan, the killing off of aspiration and the destruction of the dreams that Australian families so often have. He said it was all Bill's fault; Bill was so unpopular, and that's why Labor lost. Chairman Swan encourages the Labor Party to tax and spend and stay true to those socialist values.

These two weeks will show why the Morrison government was re-elected—why Australians opted to return a Liberal-Nationals government as the stable and reliable choice, and in the face of many challenges we're facing as a nation—in the face of global headwinds economically, in the challenges that we face across the world and internally and domestically with issues like the drought. We'll see why Australians continue to stick with the Morrison government, who will deliver a clear plan and deliver on the promises that we made, versus a Labor Party that's conflicted and tarnished by scandal, whether it's ICAC in New South Wales and the Aldi bags full of cash, whether it's the Setka sit-in happening in Victoria at the moment, or Jackie Trad in Queensland and whatever department she sits over. And again, Tim would probably be quite interested in Queensland Rail, as the dispute goes on up there.

Labor just don't seem to know what they stand for any more, or whose side they stand on. Is it the side of workers or the side of families? It's certainly not on the side of aspiration, and Australians saw that last time. Thankfully, most Australian voters took the advice of Chris Bowen and they decided not to vote for Labor's policies. We were, of course, very grateful for that, and the Australian economy continues to be grateful for that. On taxes and budget, on border protection, on union power and on work and welfare, Labor can't tell you what they believe or whose side they are on. There's no certainty and there's no consistency. But also these days you can't tell who's calling the shots in Labor. We saw, as the poll came out today, that Albo continues to slide down the polls—