Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have been sitting here thinking about how I could perhaps deliver a message to those opposite, so I thought what I would do was put it in a language they could understand. I am channelling Clinton-Gore 1992: 'It's the economy, stupid.' Let us look at our economic achievements over the last 12 months. Of course, our economy and our budget are strengthening. Those opposite might not realise it, but we have an economy that is growing at 3.3 per cent. This means that the Australian economy is growing faster than any other economy in the G7. In my language, that is an achievement.

The member for Lilley—who is gracing us with his presence this afternoon, and I appreciate that—even understands that that is an achievement. What does it mean for jobs?

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Sadly, some opposite are still in their jobs. What it means for Australians outside of this place is that 220,000 new jobs have been created in the last 12 months. For those opposite who want to talk about gender inequality, 60 per cent of those jobs were created for Australian women. That is an economic achievement. I appreciate that some of the new members of this place would not know this, but in the last government they were pretty cool and pretty keen to kill off 30,000 small business operators who drove in the transport industry. The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal—remember that? Member for Lilley, you were here in the last parliament. Do you remember that? That is 30,000 jobs—small businesses.

Opposition members interjecting—

All right. So let us not just talk about truckies. I am from the proud state of South Australia. Let's talk about naval shipbuilding. In the six years that those opposite were in government there was not one order, not one ship. They did not even order a dinghy—not one. I will tell you what we have done. We have invested $195 billion in defence capability. We are going to acquire 54 new builds. Some opposite want to talk about the NBN.

Dr Aly interjecting—

The member for Cowan, I never thought I would say this, but I wish we had the former member for Cowan in this place. Let me tell you something about the NBN. In my electorate, when I came to government in September 2013—statistics here—zero connections to the NBN. Not one. In the three years of our government, including the last 12 months, we managed to connect 28,423 people to the NBN. That is an achievement. What we have is fibre to the node and what you had was fibre to the press release—and the Australian people know it. If we are talking about telecommunications, let us talk about the mobile phone black spot program. In six years in government, what did you deliver for the bush? A big fat zero. The member for Solomon over there should know something about regional communications—a big fat zero. What are we delivering? $228 million for mobile phones in the bush.

Those opposite want to talk about leadership. They want to talk—

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton, 'Doofus' is speaking again. You should stop him. I withdraw, Mr Deputy Speaker. I really should not call him by that term, but he kind of earns it. Those opposite want to talk about leadership. You know what I have observed over the last two weeks, not 12 months? I have seen an absolute lack of leadership from 'Brown Paper Bill'. Sam Dastyari—'Senator Dim Sum', or 'Shanghai Sam' as he is known by some—brown paper bags et al—

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