Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the Treasurer laughing. He obviously thinks it is funny that a quarter of a million Australians have had their savings frozen thanks to his incompetence. No doubt he thought it was funny too when he made the jolly quip when people complained they could not access their savings that they should line up at Centrelink. That is the government of compassion!

The Prime Minister’s answer is simply to spend, spend, spend—plunging us deeper and deeper into debt. But the spending is not well targeted. It will not create jobs. We proposed measures which are better designed to create jobs which will deliver real benefits. Consider the Prime Minister’s remarks today about insulation. He told a story about a shop that sells insulation and said that the phones were ringing off the hook and that people were just lining up to get access to the free money from the government to put insulation in their homes after July. He is so proud of that. He is really delighted. But I wonder what he says to the engineering shop next door whose phone is not ringing off the hook. I wonder what he says to the plumbing store next door whose phone is not ringing, or the company that does interior design. What we have proposed are measures that will benefit every single business and small business in Australia and that will lower the cost of employing Australians for every single small business.

One of the problems with the government’s approach is that it is picking one industry here, another industry there and hoping that by providing a super amount, a super stimulation, they will do well. They may do well. They may well be very busy, but what about the rest of the economy? That is a fundamental failure to understand that government policies should aim to promote productivity and efficiency across the whole economy. We should aim as far as we can to benefit every business, every taxpayer and every industry, because that is what we Liberals believe is the role of government—that is, to enable Australians to do their best. That is the big difference. We believe government is there to enable Australians to do their best and to make their investments and their decisions and to create the prosperity that this nation depends on.

The Prime Minister believes his job is to decide that there will be one industry that will get his blessing, that will get a huge amount of money and whose phones will ring off the wall. Today that industry is going to be insulation. What will be the lucky industry next week? Who knows? We are committed to measures that will promote employment across the economy. But above all, we are committed to jobs. We are committed to measures that will promote employment.

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