Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prosperity is returning to my region. As I make my way around talking to local businesses, they are employing more locals for the first time in a very long time. Why? Because we have a strong economic action strategy. We have repealed Labor's carbon tax and businesses like Kennedy's Timber in Narangba are saving $120,000 a year. They have just put on five new staff, including a new trainee, since we got rid of the carbon tax.

We are getting rid of over a billion dollars a year in red tape which doubled our target—it is actually $2 billion this year—and that is helping businesses like R&R Hire in Caboolture where we have removed some of that red tape and they have just doubled their workforce over the last six months.

We are getting on with our infrastructure agenda. Over $50 billion has been put into infrastructure and about $3 billion is going into the highway between Pine Rivers and Gympie, unlocking the economic potential of our region. We are signing landmark free trade agreements with our major trading partners—Korea, China and Japan. That is helping farmers in Elimbah who are selling nuts; it is helping businesses like Packer Leather in Narangba that send leather products into China which used to attract a 14 per cent tariff, but that has gone. We have unlocked $800 billion on projects across the country, including projects like North-East Business Park. In our local community we have created 20,000 jobs over 15 years. We are getting on with the job. (Time expired)