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

Australians know this one thing: they know that this government has their back and now our economy is coming back. It is a comeback. It's happening right now. It's not a slogan. It's not a message. It's not an ad. It's right there in front of the eyes of every Labor MP. Instead of embracing it, instead of embracing the hard work of all Australians, what do Labor want to do? They want to deny it, for political purposes, but they can't stand in the way of the facts—a 3.3 per cent jump in September quarter growth.

The Labor MPs keep missing what is in front of them. Perhaps they are far too distracted by their own slogans, which don't work, or by their own internal ructions and whether or not somebody is still going to be the leader at the end of the year, but they keep missing what is right in front of them. First they missed that there was a global pandemic, which was why Australia went into recession. Remember? They tried to call it the 'Morrison recession'. That was the Labor Party's slogan. Where's that gone? Gee, we haven't heard much about that lately. Could it be that it just fell flat—that perhaps Australians thought to themselves, 'Actually, we understand that there's a global pandemic that the Morrison government is trying to help us through?' Is it the fact that the Australian people understood, more than the Labor MPs opposite, what was happening? And now those opposite have missed the comeback that is occurring. They want to talk it down, they want to pretend it doesn't exist, they want to pretend that the efforts of hardworking Australians don't exist—they want to diminish that—and they want to diminish the success and the achievements of the government's support programs.

For goodness sake, they would even deny the important reason that the PM went into quarantine in the first place. He went to Japan to sign an incredibly strategic defence agreement. He is just doing what many Australians have done this year, which is to self-quarantine and to work from home. I think there's a bit of professional jealousy among the Labor MPs, because the Prime Minister has achieved more in two weeks in quarantine than all of the Labor MPs combined have managed to achieve this year when it comes to supporting Australians to get back into jobs.

The Morrison government is delivering the most important commitment to Australians, and that is to get our economy going again and to get them back into work. That is what Australians want from this government. That is what Australians want from the support programs we have delivered. And that is what they're getting in the accounts we saw today. The national accounts September quarter statements show that 80 per cent of the 1.3 million Australians who either lost their jobs or saw their working hours reduced to zero at the start of the pandemic are now back at work. Our economy is in comeback mode. Over the last five months, 650,000 jobs have been created. The participation rate is at 65.8 per cent, approaching its precrisis level. This is a real result for everyday Australians. This is what is making the difference to Australians families all around this country. It is no slogan to them. It is food on the table, it is opportunity for their kids, it is their job back and it is their purpose and their meaning. That's what's important.

I will take you directly to a family in my electorate of Ryan. There are families, business owners, mums and dads right across the country, including in the electorate of Ryan, who have been doing it tough. They are benefiting from what this Morrison government has delivered. There are 74,700 taxpayers in my electorate alone who are benefiting from tax cuts that have been delivered. Recently, I caught up with a local business in Ryan, The Single Guys Coffee Co. in Kenmore. It is a small family business. I caught up with local constituent Fiona, who had just been to the great 12RND gym next door, and we stopped to grab a coffee. She was determined to put the extra money that she had received from her tax cut back into her business, to employ new young people in our electorate of Ryan. It is stories like Fiona's that the Labor MPs are failing to grasp when they say these things haven't been delivered.

In Ryan there are 5,500 businesses that have been supported by JobKeeper. One local business owner, from Suburban Social in Chapel Hill, said it meant he could pay his staff. He said, 'Julian, it saved my bacon.' That's what Australians are saying about what the government has delivered. They've never said it about the Labor MPs opposite. They've never said that about a Labor government. It's because the Morrison government is delivering for all Australians.

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