Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Seven hundred thousand—that's the number of jobs that this government has saved. And here's another figure for you: 950,000. That's how many jobs will be created over the next four years thanks to this budget. This government will deliver 950,000 new jobs, thanks to the measures in last night's budget.

I was pretty appalled by the member for Rankin's contribution earlier on. It a very passionless and pedestrian display. I don't think he believed it himself. It was almost laughable when he tried to take us on that trip down memory lane to the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, the glory days, the salad days of Labor. Really? You don't have to go very far down that lane to realise what it was. It was the boulevard of broken dreams—pink batts; overpriced school halls; all of that mismanagement and chaos. Before that we had the recession that we had to have, and there are some of us in this place who still remember it. We still remember how bad it was when families were sitting around their dining room tables and their kitchen tables talking about how they were going to pay their 17 per cent mortgage rates.

If you want to go down memory lane, let's go there, and we'll let Australians know how bad it was. The reality is that Australians have always trusted this side of politics to get them through the economic difficulties, the economic tough times. That's the way it's always been in this country, and last night's budget makes it certain. Australians, again, can put their faith in the Liberal-National government to deliver them through the economic storm, to get them through to the other side, with great new policies, including the JobMaker hiring credit. I think that's something that's really going to resonate right around country Australia, in particular, because at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we saw the queues that were starting to form around Centrelink. So many of them were the young people.

We know that often it's the younger generations that come out of a recession the slowest. Youth unemployment rates are generally higher, particularly in certain areas around our great country. So they need our support, and we're giving it to them. We're not only giving the folks on JobSeeker, our young people on JobSeeker, support but it's those apprentices as well through our Apprentice Wage Subsidy scheme. That's going to be a real boon for country Australia, getting tradies into work—not only getting people into work but training the future workforce of tomorrow, which is so vital for country Australia and so vital for building strong and vibrant regions. That's what this budget delivers.

With the JobMaker hiring credit alone you're talking around 450,000 jobs for young people, and the policies that bring us those jobs just keep on coming. Look at the tax relief for workers: 50,000 new jobs it is estimated that policy will deliver. Hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next few years will be delivered by this budget. Yes, it has been a very difficult time for regional Australia—you would know that better than anyone, Deputy Speaker O'Brien—but, through this suite of policies, our regions are uniquely placed to lead our nation out of COVID-19. Have a look at the instant asset write-off. Over 99 per cent—

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