Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

We just heard the member for Cowan say that numbers and figures don't mean anything to everyday Australians. First of all, I'm not quite sure why she contributed to this MPI, which is all about the economy. Australians actually believe that the figures and the numbers do matter. I'll go through some of those figures and numbers. It's all about what our government is delivering for this economy. We are building a stronger economy. If we build a stronger economy, we can deliver the services that Australians need, we can grow the jobs, we can invest in record infrastructure, which we are doing, and we can invest in record health and education. That's what our government is delivering in spades.

Australians care about those numbers. Australians care about the budget. Honestly, it's a disgrace that Labor still will not say sorry to Australians after promising to deliver four surpluses and not ever delivering one. It is with great pride that we are moving into surplus in this budget, which is one of the fundamental tenets of our economy. This is the first surplus since John Howard's government because we have spent the last five years fixing Labor's horrendous economic mess. Labor threw a wrecking ball through the economy.

Let me reflect on some of the numbers and achievements that do matter to Australians. More than 1.1 million new jobs have been created over five years. We are now heading past 1.2 million jobs. In the last month over 20,000 jobs were created, taking unemployment down to five per cent. In many parts of my electorate of Corangamite unemployment is well below the national average. This is the lowest level in over seven years. That is a number that Australians care about. We have made a pledge of 1.25 million new jobs in the next five years. We care about jobs, and that's why we are working so hard, we are backing small business and we are driving down the corporate tax rate. Labor to a large degree opposed these measures. We had to bring the Labor Party kicking and screaming to support our measures to drive down to 25 per cent the corporate tax rate for small and medium-sized businesses.

We saw an absolute shambles on the other side of this parliament. As we know, the Leader of the Opposition has already declared that he wants a war on business. We're seeing that in spades with some of the horrendous industrial relations policies that Labor has planned if it were ever elected. We have seen what the Leader of the Opposition would do to this nation. One of the most fundamental tenets of growing jobs is backing businesses—small, medium and large. We have seen the Labor Party time and time again turn its back on those who employ nearly 90 per cent of Australians. No matter what you try to do in this parliament, we will not stop talking about the horrendous attack on older Australians by abolishing tax refunds for excess franking credits. Every older Australian knows how Labor is going to destroy and undermine their future plans and those of their children.

The $200 billion extra of higher taxes will cripple the economy. There will be $200 billion in higher taxes on retirees, homeowners, renters, small business owners, electricity and capital gains. These supertaxes will drive our economy backwards. We cannot be complacent about the great achievements we have seen in this economy—the record jobs growth, the record investment in health, education and infrastructure, and returning the budget to surplus. Those are huge achievements. We are fixing Labor's mess. We are really proud that when you build a strong economy you're able to deliver the services that Australians rightly deserve, right across the whole economy. These are everyday Australians, and they care about numbers, they care about jobs and they care about achievements. That's why we're asking all Australians to back us at the next election.

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