Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I rise today, I'm reminded of a verse in the Bible, which translates as, 'There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.' This is a criticism of those who won't allow themselves to accept the uncomfortable reality placed right in front of them. The Bible also says that you shouldn't point out the splinter in your friend's eye when you have a plank in your own. Both these parables can be applied to the Australian Labor Party, a party that loves to criticise the coalition's economic credentials despite its own woeful record of tax-and-spend disasters. The Labor Party likes to paint itself as the arbiter of what constitutes good economic management, but their economic record reads like a bad steward's report of a horse race: stumbled at the start, failed to respond, rider told to use more vigour, unable to clear running, pulled up lame and an inquiry into performance—

A government senator: Overuse of the whip!

Overuse of the whip! In contrast, the coalition government has proven itself to be the Winx of world economic management. Just on Wednesday this week, The Australian reported that the Reserve Bank forecast the economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by the middle of this year, six months earlier than expected. RBA Governor Philip Lowe was quoted as saying that the economic recovery was well underway and had been stronger than was earlier expected. The central bank also found that unemployment would fall to 5.5 per cent by the end of 2022, better than the expected six per cent it forecast in December.

If we look back, the only reason the Morrison government could respond so effectively to COVID was the coalition's commendable economic management leading up to it. In 2019 the unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent when Labor left office. Workforce participation was at a record high and welfare dependency was at its lowest level in 30 years. But back to today: Australia's economic outlook is more favourable than those of almost all of the world's major advanced economies and we are forecast to grow faster than those advanced economies, while our AAA credit rating has been affirmed by all three major ratings agencies.

The job vacancy rate in regional Australia means that businesses, the small businesses that provide over 60 per cent of jobs, are desperate to fill jobs. Senator Ayres suggested that there are not well-paid jobs available, particularly for the young. This is just wrong. There are over 300 apprenticeship jobs available in Mount Isa today. There are jobs available all over regional Queensland, and yet we continue to hear this bizarre story that there are no jobs available to young people. The Labor Party saying something which is untrue over and over again will not make it correct, and so I seek to introduce a bit of reality to Labor.

I'm not sure how many people opposite have ever run a business—have ever actually employed somebody or have ever worried about what the economy is doing and how they maintain their commitment to their staff. I can assure you: every employer I know worries about that more than about themselves. How many of those opposite have just sat at the teat of someone else's hardworking tax dollar? The states—and, in particular, I talk about Queensland—have shut down airline jobs and shut down tourism jobs. They have done it over and over again, and I can tell you that the small-business owners who are employing those people are not sleeping at night. They're wondering how to pay their mortgages and they're wondering why Palaszczuk doesn't give a damn about them, their families or their futures.