James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is one of those great oops moments. This morning, at the opposition's strategy meeting—which is probably a term I use sarcastically—they discussed the fact that the national accounts would be released today. In their great hope and delight that the figures would not have been positive for our economy, some genius decided to move a matter of public importance related to economic management. The national accounts were released, later in the morning, and, thankfully for both the government and the people of Australia, Labor's wish and dream did not come true. Our economy grew in the quarter by 0.7. So now they're stuck with a motion that maybe someone else from the opposition was intending to speak to if that result had been slightly different. Instead, the poor member for Whitlam was sent in with that very cobbled together and half-hearted effort to make a case which is completely not borne out by any economic data—most particularly, the data released today, being the national accounts. That data saw our gross domestic product increase by 0.7 per cent, or 9.6 per cent over the last 12 months, and a 1.6 per cent growth in our economy since the beginning of this pandemic. So I apologise to the Labor Party, but not to the people of Australia, that we are a government which is growing our economy and creating jobs for the people of Australia.

The MPI talks about working Australians. Thank God we've got so many more working Australians than we would have had if some of the more dire predictions at the start of this pandemic were to have come true. Obviously, we're all aware that, early on, the Treasury, the Reserve Bank and eminent economists all believed we could have been heading for double-digit unemployment in this country. Instead, the most recent unemployment numbers see a 4 in front of them, which is an unbelievable achievement. There are challenges within that data, to be sure, but, thank God, we are where we are, as opposed to where the working people and, indeed, the small businesses that the topic this discussion speaks to could have been had some of the worst predictions occurred.

I have the honour and privilege, like most members of parliament, to visit so many small businesses in my own electorate, and I can tell you that the message is resounding. The support provided by our government over the last 18 months has made an enormous difference for them, not only in keeping the doors open but, in many cases, in giving them confidence to make decisions to grow their businesses. The instant asset write-off is a great example of that. So many businesses I visit have made decisions to invest in plant and equipment, putting money into their businesses that they might not have otherwise if they hadn't got the encouragement of being able to immediately write off the value of that asset in the next tax return.

Other decisions for small business support that we've made throughout this have given businesses the confidence to know that their government is there to support them in tough times. There is no better example than JobKeeper. If we want to talk about working people, working Australians and supporting them, I think the JobKeeper program will go down as one of the great public policy legacies in the history of this nation's economy. It was that decision, coupled with the other measures of support, that I believe led to this unbelievable outcome when it comes to employment statistics, compared to the very grim predictions in the early days of the pandemic.

There's more work to be done. We've got a lot more to do. With an election due by next May, we will be looking forward to talking to the people of Australia about our plans for the future. But what we've had in the contributions so far from those opposite is a glimpse into their vision for the future of the economy, which is nothing at all. So we're campaigning against a question mark at the next election, evidently. I look forward to that, because I've heard so many contributions—not just in this discussion but in so many discussions on things like the pandemic over the preceding months—where the Labor Party, as previous speakers from the government have pointed out, are only hoping for terrible economic news, which does not eventuate, and continuously praying for that into the future. Shame on you! Your dreams have not come true. The economy is growing. We have not shed jobs in the hundreds of thousands, as the early predictions showed. In fact, we've got a very bright outlook for this economy. The only danger to this economy would be a change of government. The only thing that would see the bright future turn in the reverse would be if those opposite were elected at an election next year. Thankfully, all indications are that there is no chance of that occurring.

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