Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I have no faith in the former Western Australian government, but that was through bitter experience. The fourth point I would like to talk about is one that the government have never even touched to any degree, which makes me think that they think it is a pretty good idea—that is, to relieve small businesses for a period of two years of a portion of their superannuation guarantee contribution. Basically, the Commonwealth would be putting cash into their hands and thereby directly reducing the cost of employment.

I think it is pretty clear that we have an alternative that is effective and cost-effective as well. We know that what has happened in this country is that there has been a dramatic lack of confidence. We had a lack of confidence because the government, of course, did not help when they were talking about the inflation genie. They scared a lot of people at that point. They probably even scared some of the regulators, like the Reserve Bank, by talking up how bad inflation was. It was difficult for the Reserve Bank to do anything but put up interest rates. So that certainly did not create confidence in the Australian economy. When we look at the state of the Australian economy versus the state of other economies around the world, with our regulations and with our government surplus we were in an enviable position. There was every reason to have confidence that this country would be better off than others in facing the challenges ahead. But unfortunately there were those within this place who were doing their utmost to undermine that confidence, so we have been in a very difficult situation over the last 12 months or so. I will just finish by saying that what we need to concentrate on right now is jobs, jobs, jobs. There is no doubt about it; confidence— (Time expired)

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