Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it's Monday morning of a new sitting week but, as sure as the sun shines upon us, Labor are up to their favourite activity, and that is talking down the Australian economy. They love talking down the Australian economy because, for them, it is all about the politics of this place. With the absence of any economic plan whatsoever, the Labor members instead offer up and revert back to this one trick that they have, which is to seek to ignore the facts and try political point-scoring. The idea that Labor and the member for Moreton would come into this place and seek to lecture this government on economic management is farcical, and it simply denies their own record and the facts. When it comes to Labor and the economy, they wreck the joint. They can't manage money because they love to spend your—the taxpayers of Australia's—money. They simply think that they can spend your money better than you can and that they know how to spend your money better than you do. We see reckless policies leading to reckless spending time and time again from the Labor members opposite, because we know that, for them, again, it's all about the politics. For this government, though, it's all about everyday Australians and how we support them through a strong economy and sound economic management.

Whilst I know that my efforts today to educate Labor members on the economic record of this government is likely to fall on deaf ears, I do think it is important that Australians understand just what the economic plan of this government is achieving for Australians. We have fixed the Labor mess yet again. On this side of the House we're working together, growing our economy, easing the cost of living and getting more people into work. Under this government, if you have a go you get a go, and the more people that have a go the more productivity is driven up and the better off we are together as a nation.

Increased productivity is leading us to a brighter future and higher wages, with employment growth that is now more than three times what we inherited from Labor. We're also putting more Australians into the workforce. This government has created over 1.5 million jobs in the last six years. Australia, we now know from a recent announcement, has the lowest level of welfare dependency in 30 years. Despite some tough economic conditions, we are enjoying our 28th consecutive year of economic growth. The Australian economy has grown, on average, 3.1 per cent per year—this is in comparison to the OECD average, which sits at 2.2 per cent. We have maintained our AAA credit rating, and we are one of only 10 developed countries to have this rating.

All of that does not come about without hard work and discipline from this Morrison-McCormack government. The Labor members opposite would have you believe that these aren't achievements, that they can simply talk the economy down to where they want it, to where they can play politics with it. Well, the answer is this government is in fact putting more people into work and delivering lower taxes to boot for more than 10 million Australians. Because while Labor wants to take more money out of your pocket, this government wants to make sure that you keep more money and more of what you earn. We are giving businesses more incentives to employ more Australians, to boost productivity, to export more, to make more and to sell more. We've delivered tax relief for 3.4 million small mum and dad businesses that are employing over seven million Australians.

Our strong budget has meant that we can deliver the essential services that Australians rely on, because at the end of the day a surplus is not a means to an end in itself, but a way of supporting our fellow Australians: with an extra $37 billion in funding for schools over the next decade, new hospital agreements delivering $31 billion in funding over five years, 2,300 new life-changing medicines on the PBS, $100 billion invested in vital infrastructure around the nation, and record investments in defence and national security. Because of our strong economic management, we have faced the unprecedented disasters of this summer and supported our fellow Australians, and we continue to do so. (Time expired)

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