Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I hate to break it to the Australian Greens, but there is a time and place for this to be considered, and that will be at an election in a few months time. That will be when the Australian people make their decision about who governs and about the constitution of this parliament for the next three years, just as they did a little under three years ago when they re-elected the Morrison government. As much as the Australian Greens may wish to change the normal electoral course, the fact is it's a job for the Australian people at the election. And I know—

An honourable senator: Call the election!

There are the Greens, calling for an early election. I heard Senator Waters earlier, proclaiming what she saw to be the election outcome, talking about the polls, predicting the election outcome, showing the same type of hubris that she did three years ago when she made exactly the same sorts of calls, exactly the same sorts of observations about the polls, only of course to be completely wrong.

We will take nothing for granted when we go to the election in a few months time, but we will welcome the opportunity to stand on our track record of keeping Australians safe and secure through some of the most uncertain times the world has faced—through the most uncertain times, arguably, that most people in this chamber at this point in time have ever lived through. We will stand on a record that sees 1.7 million more Australians in jobs—employed, with the opportunities and the dignity that come from paid work and employment. Today, there are 1.7 million more than when our government was first elected. Incredibly, there has been a recovery and surge of 1.1 million in employment and job numbers since the pandemic of COVID-19 struck and since it disrupted economies and lives in every country around the world. You get a sort of alternative view of history from those opposite—and from the Greens from time to time—who seem to pretend that COVID-19 is happening in isolation here in Australia and ignore many of the comparisons with situations around the rest of the world.

But here in Australia, not without challenge, not without difficulty and not without mistakes, we have nonetheless still seen lower rates of fatalities than global averages in most other comparable nations. We have achieved higher rates of vaccinations than most other comparable nations, and we have secured stronger economic outcomes than most other nations. That's a testament to the work and cooperation of all Australians. We don't stand here as a government proclaiming all of those achievements as exclusively our own. They're the work that came from the earliest decisions that were taken to close Australia's international borders, decisions that Prime Minister Morrison took—before the global pandemic had been declared by the World Health Organization, it was recognised here in Australia. And through that closure of borders we managed to keep most of the earlier, deadlier strains of COVID-19 at bay in Australia—to buy the time for vaccines to be developed and to buy the time for the rollout to occur and to give Australians the opportunity to protect and secure themselves, as they have done in record numbers.

Through that time, our economic response plans have worked. That 1.7 million additional Australians in jobs that have been secured sees one million more Australian women in work as a result. It sees some of the highest women's workforce participation rates that our country has ever seen. It sees unemployment standing at 4.2 per cent, a 13-year low in unemployment. Youth unemployment is at such lows, in part, because of the 220,000 trade apprenticeships that have been generated, operating today as a result of the economic response policies our government has put in place. Australian families and households are dealing with the challenges of COVID with the extra security of lower taxes—there are some 11½ million Australian families enjoying tax relief to the tune of $1½ billion per month in additional income into their households to secure them.

We oppose the suspension of standing orders because this parliament has real business to get on with today, rather than the stunts of the Australian Greens. The Australian people will get to have their say at an election that we will contest, and we will argue strongly in terms of our track record and in terms of our economic plans for the future, and against the type of Labor-Greens alliance that will go to the election and that will, no doubt, if they are successful, work hand in glove, and will see those opposite held to ransom by the likes of Senator Waters.