Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite want to come here and talk about spending, but they don't want to talk about results. With motions like this, they want to keep on coming into this place, feigning that they're the great economic managers of Australian politics. They're still trying to ride the coat-tails of Howard and Costello. They're still trying to hoodwink to Australians that they've still got it. They don't got it! They're not the great economic managers that they believe they are. They're not it. And that's not subjective; that's fact. There's only one major party in this place at the moment that has the runs on the board when it comes to responsible economic management—and it's not them. While they just keep on talking about it, we deliver.

In our three years in government, Labor has delivered two consecutive surpluses, the first back-to-back surpluses in almost 20 years; we've had the biggest nominal budget improvement in Australian history, a $209 billion turnaround; and we've got record low historical unemployment rates—all while delivering real cost-of-living relief for Australian families. They call that cost-of-living relief wasteful spending. We call it backing Aussie families. That's a record that we can be proud of. That's responsible fiscal management, making tough decisions and making savings while also spending to help Australians. We're helping people earn more and keep more of what they earn. We're not bringing out these black mugs saying, 'We're back in black.' We've delivered results.

Let's not forget their record. Nine years of government; nine surpluses promised. Do we know how many they delivered? None! Not one surplus delivered. And then they come in here talking about how we've got wasteful spending. They didn't deliver one surplus in their nine years, and we delivered two. They doubled the debt before the pandemic. They left a trillion dollar tab and riddled the budget with waste and rorts. They promised fiscal rules. I mean, I don't know what those rules were worth. They weren't worth the paper they were written on, because they made those rules but never followed them. Was one of the rules that you were going to keep delivering deficits? It should have been, because that's what happened. You promised nine surpluses; you delivered none. They promised discipline, but they delivered deficits. They promised restraint, but they spent without purpose. While they want to talk about responsibility, we actually deliver it.

In just our first term, we've delivered the largest turnaround in history, $209 billion better than forecast. But we've also made tough decisions—$100 billion in savings and reprioritisations, with spending growth held at 1.7 per cent, which is less than half the average of the Liberal Party. We've banked 70 per cent of revenue upgrades and reduced debt by $188 billion. The last time I checked, I think the Morrison government only banked 40 per cent of revenue upgrades and the Howard government about 30 per cent. So we banked 70 per cent of revenue upgrades, which has helped reduce our debt, because that's what responsible management looks like. They call our spending wasteful; we call it targeted.

Cheaper child care is one of our spending measures. Would those on the other side say that's a waste? I certainly wouldn't. You can come into my electorate and tell hardworking mums and dads that their child care shouldn't be cheaper. We've got better wages for early educators. We initiated that spending. Do you think they need to be paid better? We've got better wages for aged-care workers. We've got cheaper medicines. We've got energy bill relief. We know that they don't support energy bill relief because they voted against it. We've delivered tax cuts for every taxpayer, including tax cuts in the last financial year legislated—and we know they don't support that either, because they went to the last election promising to increase taxes.

We've delivered 1.1 million new jobs since coming to office. Women's workforce participation is at a record high, with the gender pay gap at a record low. They call all these measures wasteful spending. I won't have a bar of that and neither will Australia, it seems, because they returned us to office with this record, and we'll keep on delivering. Inflation is at the lowest rate in four years, within the RBA target band for nine months. Their alternative was $600 billion on a nuclear fantasy, nine years of rorts, waste and robodebt. It's a fantasy that you guys think you're the better economic managers, because the facts don't show that you are.

See this speech in context