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

Thank you for that correction. They wonder why the Premier of Queensland doesn't give a damn about their future, their families, their mortgages or their employees. I also need to correct Senator Gallacher, who is well out of touch. He believes that nobody is monitoring business payments. I can tell him that Single Touch Payroll was introduced some time ago, and I can give him a tutorial in other business practices that he's obviously not aware of in this modern world. Although Senator Gallacher is often a great advocate for regional South Australia, I'm afraid he has no idea of what's happening with the businesses there.

Business confidence is now above prepandemic levels according to two bank run surveys. All I can say is that the Australian people and businesses must be hugely relieved that the coalition has held the country's financial reins during this shock. In fact, Australians would be thanking their lucky stars that Labor hasn't had a chance to get its hands on the Treasury for some time. Studies show that, without the groundbreaking JobKeeper subsidy, unemployment would have skyrocketed to 12 per cent and stayed there until at least 2022. The Labor Party loves to paint the coalition as holding back wage growth, but, if we look at the facts, Labor's record on wages was a cut to the real minimum wage in three out of six years, whereas it has grown every year under the coalition. Average earnings adjusted for hours as measured in the National Accounts increased 3.3 per cent through the year to the December quarter, above the 10-year average of around 2.3 per cent, and that compares to just 1.3 per cent in the June quarter of 2013. Even though we are facing a once-in-a-century pandemic, the coalition's strong economic management resulted in solid household income growth of 3.4 per cent in the September quarter and 8.1 per cent compared to a year ago.

The key to lifting wages is lifting productivity growth, and that's why we are focused on lowering taxes, investing in infrastructure, equipping our workers with better skills and improving our industrial relations framework. In my home region of northern Australia, the Morrison government has injected more billions of dollars in assistance, infrastructure and support, whereas the state government has been one of the lowest-spending state governments across the land. In the most recent budget, the north received the following allocations, just to name a few: $655 million in additional road infrastructure across the north; $3 million for the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority to accelerate water infrastructure planning and agricultural opportunities; $17 million for a regional tourism recovery package to help the industry bounce back from COVID; more than $3 billion in defence funding for facilities in northern Australia; and $1 billion allocated to flow through local councils. So I have to thank the Labor Party. I have to thank them for once again giving us an opportunity to highlight the positive outlook Australians have been given thanks to a coalition government.