Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The hypocrisy of the Labor Party knows no bounds. Listening to the member for McMahon and the member for Rankin, you'd think this was a party of fiscal rectitude, a model of fiscal rectitude. But this is a party that wants to spend more. This is a party that wants to tax more, with $200 billion of new and proposed taxes if the Labor Party were to be elected to government in Australia—$200 billion of new taxes.

And the members for McMahon and Rankin conveniently overlook an important number, a number that they haven't mentioned in this House—that is, 1,100 jobs a day in the last year. This economy generated 1,100 jobs a day, the highest jobs growth on record in this nation's history. That is a direct result of the economic policies of the coalition government and of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer's careful and methodical management of our budget. We won't be lectured by a party that comes to the table with vastly higher expenditure and, to fund all that expenditure, $200 billion of new proposed taxes that we know of. We haven't even got into an election campaign yet. We have another year of government to go, and the Labor Party still has the opportunity to put up more taxes.

What do we hear as the centrepiece, the common theme that comes out of this Labor Party in 2018? Gone is the respect for economic credibility that was there in the Keating and Hawke eras, the economic reform era of the Labor Party. The person that the member for McMahon proposes to venerate, their former Treasurer Paul Keating—it's all gone. What is this critical complaint, the core issue that they have? They have a core issue with the reduction of the company tax rate for small and medium businesses—that is, $50 million of turnover or less—in this country that the government has pursued. Where do they think these jobs come from, Mr Speaker? Who generates these jobs? These aren't government jobs and they aren't part-time jobs; these are full-time jobs generated by the private sector as a direct result of the government cutting the company tax rate for Australian small and medium businesses.

What does this Labor Party have against the small Australian mum-and-dad family businesses that they propose to reverse the tax cuts that the government has given to small and medium business? Why didn't the shadow Treasurer look the Australian public in the eye? Why didn't he come forward just now and say: 'We don't believe that Australian small business should have got a company tax cut. We don't believe that the jobs and growth that we've seen in this economy is a direct result of the coalition government's policy working.' Well, it is working: 1,100 jobs a day. Small and medium Australian businesses are now more competitive. Yes, we do believe that if we continue to cut company tax to make us internationally competitive we will see more investment, more growth and more jobs in this country.

We won't be lectured by a Labor Party which has not produced a surplus in any government since 1989. By the time Australia gets back to surplus under this government—which it will under this government, and the Treasurer will speak to that tonight; we will get back to a credible pathway to surplus finally—it will have been over 30 years since the Labor Party has delivered a surplus. Thirty years, and they're the party that the Australian public are supposed to listen to? We're supposed to listen to a shadow Treasurer whose party hasn't delivered a surplus in government for over 30 years. Get some credibility, you guys, please! We know what's going on. We know that the credible pathway that the coalition has put us on to get back to surplus is dealing with the legacy of failure that we had. If you listen to the member for McMahon and the member for Rankin, they've been channelling Billy Joel. If you listen to them, they say: 'We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning.' But when they came to government in 2013 there was zero net debt.

Who started the fire, speaking of the member for McMahon's fire truck? The Labor Party started the fire. They racked up the debt and deficit. They spent like there was no tomorrow, against all the advice and all the warnings of the opposition, us at the time, saying: 'You are spending too much in the global financial crisis. You are digging a deep hole for Australians. You are not spending it properly. You are generating a debt and deficit disaster.' We won't be lectured by the member for Rankin. We won't be lectured by a man who worked for the member for Lilley, announcing years of surpluses that never appeared. You've never apologised to the Australian people, Member for Rankin. You've never come forward and said, 'I apologise for writing that speech for the member for Lilley saying that there would be four years of surpluses.' There were no surpluses, Member for Rankin, and you had the hide to stand here today and lecture us on delivering a surplus.

Ever since this government came to office we've been opposed by the Labor Party at every turn. Every expenditure cut that we've put forward, they've opposed. On every single one they've had their senators and members oppose us. We've said, 'Let's reduce the welfare bill'—and, guess what: under this government, from when we came to office to today, there are 160,000 fewer people in the welfare queues—160,000 people off welfare.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

I think the member for Jagajaga is proposing to cheer and say thank you to the government. I think that's what she's trying to say over there. I've got a news flash for you, Member for Jagajaga: 160,000 people out of the welfare queues is good news. There's no need to get upset about it. It means that we have a lower expenditure for the Commonwealth. It means that people have income. It means they pay income taxes.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

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