Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find it a little bit—well, it would be amusing if it weren't so serious, listening to this Labor government and its supposedly comprehensive answers. I don't think we have heard anything comprehensive in terms of answers or the lack of answers that are being provided to us here at question time. What I do hear is that there is an ongoing theme going on here. I think Labor is just hoping that if you say the same thing over and over again, if you repeat mistruths, the general public will accept them as truths.

This Labor government would be in a most unfortunate situation if they were to end up being confronted with another global pandemic. As they keep telling us, it was the former coalition government that has left this budget in a dire situation, despite the fact they've got $50 billion in their back pocket. I would remind them of what it was that the former coalition government achieved in those dire times: providing $314 billion in economic support during the pandemic, helping Australians get to the other side of the greatest economic shock since the Great Depression. This included the JobKeeper program, the single biggest economic support program in Australia's history. The Reserve Bank of Australia said that JobKeeper saved at least 700,000 jobs, and Treasury said it prevented the unemployment rate from reaching 15 per cent.

From across here, we hear there are plans and plans and plans and lots more plans. But they cannot detail those plans. They cannot provide answers when we question those plans going forward. The questions put to Minister Gallagher were very simple, and the answers were not comprehensive. We heard a bit of fluff about multinational tax reform, and, as we've heard just now, this wonderful lowering of tax on electric vehicles—wow! That is really going to help the everyday mums and dads out in the regions! That's really going to help the everyday mums and dads, the middle-income earners, the low-income earners. It's going to help them incredibly—much better than the promised $275 decrease to everyday Australians' bills, a promise that has not been kept at all by this government.

I would remind the government: perhaps use a bit of common sense. Take a leaf out of our book in understanding that it is the private sector, not government, that drives opportunity and prosperity, and that resilient small businesses, not bureaucrats, are the backbone and the strength of our economy, and that families know what is best for them. I can tell you now: there are probably only a handful of families in this nation who would even be able to benefit from this wonderful lowering of tax on electric vehicles—certainly none of the families I'm concerned with in the Northern Territory. Perhaps your mates in big business will benefit from the lowering of those taxes. Please, put everyday Australians first in this next budget. I hope that's what this government is going to do, but I won't hold my breath.

Question agreed to.