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

It is not just the jobs of Australians that depend on the resurgence of our economy on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis; it is indeed the services that Australians rely on that are so dependent on the restoration of the Australian economy, which is why the JobMaker plan is so important. We restore the revenues that those essential services rely on not by higher taxes. We secure that higher revenue by ensuring we get people back into work, that we get investment back into our economy and that we see our economy grow again. That is why our JobMaker plan is about keeping the tax cuts that we have legislated in this place, and we remain absolutely committed to keeping those tax cuts to give Australians that continued incentive in the economy.

This includes the changes that we need to make to skills, working with the states and territories; the changes we need to make in workplace and industrial relations; the changes we need to make to ensure that we deregulate our economy so businesses can invest and employ people and find their way back; the changes we need to make in infrastructure and increasing our investment. As we said yesterday, almost $10 million has been brought forward in new investment just in the last eight months alone.

Of course, there is much more to come in this area as we continue to roll out the JobMaker plan, which ensures we can get the growth that will provide the revenues to support the essential services we're committed to, such as the $31 billion in extra spending on hospitals in the five-year agreement signed by all states and territories, which was secured by the Minister for Health. There is the delivery of pharmacy services secured by the pharmacy agreement, delivered by the Minister for Health. There is the continued support of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, with some 2,300 new and amended listings already introduced by this government. The record needs based funding for our schools, which the Minister for Education is delivering, is up from $13.8 billion when we came to government, and is now at $21.8 billion and heading to $32.5 billion under the changes we've made—and what we've achieved by putting that funding in place. There is also the $243 million—

Ms Swanson interjecting—

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