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

And over those six years, as we brought the budget back into balance, those opposite fought us every step of the way. All the way through, they fought against the government as we sought to repair a budget that they left in absolute tatters by their economic irresponsibility, with programs like cash for clunkers—and the list goes on and on and on, where they failed in their responsibility to manage the budget.

I particularly acknowledge here in this place today the work of the Minister for Finance. This will be his seventh budget. In the six years leading up to tonight's budget, he more than anyone was responsible for ensuring that as we went into the COVID-19 global pandemic the government of Australia was in a position to move quickly and strongly to ensure that we could cushion the blow. And we have cushioned that blow. We couldn't eliminate the blow. No country has been able to do that. But this country has done it better than almost any other developed country in the world today, with the speed of our response as well as the design of our response, and the capability to respond because of the work that had been done by this government, year in year out, to repair the budget and bring it back to balance.

Those opposite have shown no disposition to what is necessary to try to restore a budget back to balance. One of the things they don't understand is that the way we will restore the budget to balance after we have moved through this crisis, should we be given that opportunity into the future, will be by growing our economy, guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely on and not increasing their taxes. That's how we brought the budget back into balance before this COVID-19 recession, and that is exactly how we'll do it again. People ask, 'How will the jobs come back?' They're already coming back. Under this government, we knew how to bring jobs back—1½ million jobs—before the COVID-19 recession hit. Those jobs are coming back, and they're coming back under our plan. (Time expired)

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