Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The first thing to state, for the record, is that our emissions are down by more than 20 per cent on 2005 levels. That's consistent with meeting and beating the 2030 targets that we agreed at Paris. When it comes to the economy and when it comes to jobs, I point out to the honourable member that when we came to government—therefore, under Labor—the unemployment rate was at 5.7 per cent. Before this pandemic, before the first recession in nearly three decades, the unemployment rate was at 5.1 per cent, and today the unemployment rate is at 4.6 per cent. The unemployment rate is under five per cent for the first time in a decade.

I'll tell you what leads to more jobs: lower taxes. On this side of the House we have legislated, through the parliament, more than $300 billion of tax cuts for Australian families. We have introduced, in successive budgets, some of the biggest tax incentives for investment. That has led to, for example, a 20 per cent increase in machinery, capital and equipment purchases over the course of the last year through the incentives and the immediate expensing provisions that we have put in place in the budget. Whether it's our patent box, whether it's cutting taxes for small business down to 25 per cent, whether it's the work that we're—

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