Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member says we have doubled the debt. We will come back to that. Let's have a look at Labor's contribution when they were in power in relation to skilling. More than $1 billion was cut from apprenticeships between the 2011 and 2012 budgets. Labor failed to ensure that training led to real jobs. Instead, they funded training for training's sake. A review by Allen Consulting of Labor's signature $2.1 billion Productivity Places Program found it could not identify who had been trained, how many people had been trained or who had the contract to deliver the training. If that were in the private sector, the company would be broke. Labor was then forced to scrap the program before the last election. Throughout Labor's term, a partnership completion rates flat-lined at around 50 per cent.

Part of our plan is to, of course, balance the budget. I know that is a foreign concept for the Labor Party and the Greens and for everyone on that side of the House, but we have to balance the budget. Even the school kids up in the gallery understand that you must balance the budget.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

You say, 'We balanced the budget.' Where is your $6 billion in savings that you promised before the last election? You have not voted for one of them. Get your senators and get the Greens to support your savings. Do you know what? I do not hear about any savings from Labor. I have been sitting in this place for almost two years and there has not been one decent saving. I go to the only savings that you guys come up with. First, you want to tackle multinationals, which will save you $2 billion a year—we are running budgets of about $35 billion a year in deficits, and in the last eight years we have done that—which Joe, the Treasurer, is now addressing. What is your second saving? You want to hit superannuation. Have you thought at all about what superannuation will do to the social security budget 20 years from now? We are going to save heaps because everyone under 50 will have superannuation and they will not be on welfare. Think of the number of people in your electorate. Even if they put $30,000 a year away—and not everyone can do that—for 25 years, what do they have? They have $750,000 or something, minus 15 per cent in tax. You want to hit them more. Hands off super. It is not your money. You have a spending problem, Labor. You spend like drunken sailors. You have to rein in your spending. That is what you have to do.

What does the Leader of the Opposition say in this debate? He says, 'Oh well, household savings are down.' The deficit has doubled, yet he fails to pass his own budget savings. The Leader of the Opposition is not providing leadership to this country. He does not know how to create jobs. The best thing that Australians can do in 2016 is re-elect the coalition government.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

That is what we need: we need a coalition government re-elected for a second term, member for Moreton. That is what we need, because we have a plan. A lot of you guys are good guys and you want to see the best thing, but you have to make some savings. When you rack up spending, have a guess who pays for it. Businesses pay for it through higher taxes: through payroll tax; through carbon taxes. How does that help create jobs? Please, look at some savings. You have 12 months to think about it.

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