Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest for her question, and I commend her on her excellent advocacy for the Bunbury Outer Ring Road. Fantastic job, member for Forrest. She stands up for her electorate to ensure important critical infrastructure will get built. That is funded by a stronger economy and a government that knows how to live within its means. The Bunbury Outer Ring Road will get built, thanks to the member for Forrest. The budget I handed down last night is a plan for a stronger economy. The economy Australians will live in, in the next 10 years, is what will determine their choices and their opportunities. It is important that we go into this next decade with a budget that's back in balance, a budget that has turned the corner on debt, and a budget that has taxes under control and has spending under control. It is important that there is a strong plan to ensure a stronger economy for Australia. That's what this budget is about. You cannot support and guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on unless you're doing the hard work of building a stronger economy. The businesses of this country, the employees of this country and the Turnbull government are doing that to provide that stronger economy.

The plan that I announced last night, the Turnbull government's plan for a stronger economy, is to provide tax relief to encourage and reward hardworking Australians and reduce the cost pressures on households. It is to continue backing business to invest and create more jobs. As the Australian Bureau of Statistics have demonstrated and found in their records, more than 1,000 jobs a day were created during the past year, creating more opportunities for people to go from welfare into work. The best form of welfare is a job. We are guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely on: Medicare, hospitals, schools, caring for older Australians, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. That is the Turnbull government's stamp of guarantee, because it is a stamp of guarantee of a stronger economy—which those opposite wouldn't know the first thing about.

It's a plan to keep Australians safe. It's only a coalition government, it's only a Liberal and National government, which knows how and has the demonstrated track record of keeping Australians safe; of stopping the boats and keeping them stopped; of hunting down criminals; and of stopping terrorism and preventing the terrorist threat to this country—under the keen stewardship of the Minister for Home Affairs, keeping Australians safe, and of the Minister for Defence, ensuring that our overseas forces get the support they need. Above all, we on this side of the House, the Liberal and National parties, know how to live within our means, keeping taxes under control and keeping spending under control. We all know that too much tax is never enough for those on that side of the House. Their taxes can never keep up with their reckless spending. (Time expired)

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