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

I've got a tip for the member for Melbourne: I won't be listening to the Greens, and neither will the Treasurer or the Australian people, who value their jobs and value the strength of the economy, which is what actually pays for essential services. This seems to be something that escapes the member for Melbourne, the Greens and, I expect, many who sit on their side. It is the strong economy—businesses going out and employing people, investing, creating jobs and creating the opportunities that drive an economy—that pays for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, pays for aged care, pays for mental healthcare support and pays for all of the services. It pays for the pension. It pays for disability support. A strong economy is what achieves that. That is why tonight you will see a budget that guarantees the essential services that Australians rely on, because it is a comprehensive further plan to secure the economic recovery of this country. That economic recovery, compared to what is happening around the world at the moment, is quite striking. There are few developed countries in the world that can say that there are more people employed today than there were before the pandemic hit. That is a great achievement of Australians—Australians going out there and working hard, running businesses and putting Australians in work so they can pay taxes and ensure that the government can support the essential services that Australians rely on.

We are the party of lower taxes, and I'll tell you why that is. We are the party of lower taxes because we believe that Australians should keep more of what they earn. We believe that a dollar kept in the hands of an Australian family is better than a dollar kept in the hands of the government. That's what we believe. We believe that. That's why we have put speed limits on taxation in this country, which the Labor Party has opposed at two successive elections. It is a speed limit on taxes that we apply on ourselves, because we know that higher taxes actually strike out the enterprise and initiative of Australians who are working hard for their own families in their own communities. We will remain the party of lower taxes. Those opposite are the ones that, on every occasion, know how to start spending. They never know how to stop. They're the party that said that we should keep JobKeeper in place forever. They knew it had to be introduced, but they didn't know how to end it. That was not the responsible decision that they were prepared to support. We will remain the party of responsible investment of taxpayers' money, and we will forever be the party of lower taxes. (Time expired)

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