Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on implementation of the government's plan to grow the economy to support more and better paid jobs, including the more than 400,000 jobs in 2017? Is the Treasurer aware of any impediments to this plan?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fairfax for his question. Last year was a record year for jobs growth in Australia. On this side of the House we celebrate every single day that Australians get a job, and last year 1,100 jobs were created every single day, and more than 100,000 of those jobs were in Queensland. More than 100,000 jobs were created in Queensland last year of those 400,000 jobs. Three out of four of those jobs were full time and seven out of 10 of those jobs were in the private sector. Businesses were employing Australians at record levels in 2017. About this time last year, the Leader of the Opposition pumped himself up at the Press Club and said, '2017 has got to be about jobs, jobs and jobs.' Well, we created 403,000 of them, Leader of the Opposition, by sensible economic policies that were supporting a resurgence in business investment in this country.

Consumer confidence today is at the highest level in four years. Business confidence is at twice the long-run average. Retail trade surged strongly again in November of last year. New private business investment is growing at the strongest rate since the peak of the mining investment boom in 2012. Today we saw, in the AiG index, the strongest start to a calendar year for the services industry in around 14 years. Let's not forget that 80 per cent of the jobs in this country are in the services industry.

2018 will be a year of economic opportunity for Australians and Australian businesses. The coalition government, led by the Prime Minister, is absolutely positive about the opportunities for Australians as the global economy and the domestic economy continue to strengthen. Everything we do as a government is aimed at enabling Australians and Australian businesses to seize those opportunities that are out there to create more and better-paid jobs for Australians, as occurred last year.

We have a positive view. Those opposite, the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition, have a very bleak view, they have a very small view, they have a very negative view about what can be achieved in this country by Australians and Australian businesses. They don't see the opportunities as we see them, and that's why they can't be trusted to seize them if they were ever to return to the treasury bench. They have a wet-blanket view of the Australian economy, and they are standing in the way of Australians realising their economic opportunities by standing in the way of our plans to reduce taxes, which will lead to more jobs and better-paying jobs for all Australians. They don't have an economic plan to grow the economy; they just have an envy plan to dice it up and spread it around in accordance with their own prejudices. (Time expired)