Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that over the year, the economy grew 3 per cent, which is the fastest rate of growth since the 2012 September quarter during the height of the mining investment boom, and the 27th year of consecutive economic growth;

(2) recognises that strong employment outcomes have been accompanied by an elevated rate of labour force participation, particularly for women, and that wages can be expected to rise if economic growth remains strong; and

(3) calls on the Government to remain resolute in its effective economic management to ensure funding for the essential services we need.

I'm pleased to stand in the chamber today and speak about the positive outcomes being achieved across the economy as a result of this government's economic policies. Importantly, we are getting on with the job of governing the nation. Our government are proving that we do what we say we'll do. We're not just talking about creating economic policies to see jobs created; we've seen over one million jobs created in our economy since coming into office. We're not just talking about bringing the budget back into balance; we're working towards making that happen, and earlier than anticipated. We're not just talking about strengthening our economy; we are seeing evidence of our economy grow and strengthen.

I'm pleased to report to the House that the real gross domestic product for the June quarter has grown above market expectations, at 3.4 per cent through the year. Not only this, but we've seen the nation now in its unprecedented 27th year of consecutive economic growth, and the highest rate of growth since 2012, when we saw the once-in-a-generation mining boom. This is a stronger rate of growth than any other G7 country. The growth has been shared across the country among the states and the territories, and has had a broad base, meaning there is no particular sector doing the heavy lifting, as was the case during the mining boom. As we've seen, the strong employment outcomes are a result of the strong economy that we are seeing delivered. Jobs growth has been accompanied by elevated rates of labour force participation—importantly, particularly for women, where it has been near record highs.

More than 330,000 jobs were created in our economy last financial year, which was the biggest jobs growth since 2004-05. This is more than double the average that was achieved under the previous Labor government. Equally importantly for my electorate of Forde, we see across the country that 95,000 young Australians have found employment. This is the best financial year result since 1988-89, almost 30 years ago. The unemployment rate has declined, also reaching 5.3 per cent in July, the lowest level since November 2012.

But there are some spots that we need to be aware of. And whilst we've seen this job growth and the strengthening of our economy, we continue to focus, importantly, on reducing personal income tax to ensure that we have a lower and fairer income tax system. This is important because it puts more money in peoples' pockets. We recognise that families around Australia, in many electorates and including mine of Forde, are feeling the pinch. We have seen that in the national accounts figures, when, despite the fact that we saw over the past 12 months that the broader economic measure of wellbeing rose some 0.3 per cent for the quarter, to 3.7 per cent over the 12 months—which means that Australians are significantly better off, on average, than they were 12 months ago—we've at the same time seen that the household savings ratio has fallen to one per cent.

This is a reflection of the fact that families are doing it tough. That's why it's important—whether it's our personal income tax plan, which leaves more money in peoples' pockets and provides greater incentive for them to work or take a pay rise or do more hours—that they feel that their budgets will have some more flexibility in them so that they're not feeling so tight. Equally, my electorate of Forde has seen many small businesses benefit from our small to medium business tax cuts—some 15,000. In combination, these issues that we're focusing on as a government—reducing taxes, both for personal households and also for our small to medium business sector—go to underpinning a strong economy for the future of this country.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians won't be lining up to congratulate the Prime Minister or the Treasurer on the economy in the same way that the member for Forde seems to be doing today. When I'm out and about in my community, the message I hear from people about our economy is very clear. For most people their experience of the economy is defined by stagnant wages, insecure work, declining living standards and, most importantly of all, struggles with the cost of living. All of those things are related, as people feel that everything is going up except their wages. People feel, with some justification, that the rules of the economy are written to benefit somebody else at their expense.

The member for Forde and I share a pretty big border in Logan City in our part of the world. So, I can only assume that he has been hearing the same sorts of things that I have been—and that he has been completely ignoring them. Obviously on our side of the House we welcome that relatively strong headline economic growth figure of 3.4 per cent that came out a couple of Wednesdays ago. Given the really quite healthy global conditions that we're experiencing at the moment, we expect there to be a strong headline growth number in this country. Of course, we in the Labor Party are proud that Australia is in its 27th year of continuous economic expansion. We're especially proud of the role that we played during the global financial crisis in ensuring that that remarkable run continued.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame! Shame!

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite say, 'Shame!' and that really just says it all. Those opposite are talking about debt now, having doubled the debt. Those opposite have doubled the debt. They should hang their heads in shame.

There are plenty of other data in the national accounts which show that there is other cause for concern in the data. Company profits are growing more than five times as fast as wages in that most recent data. Incomes aren't keeping up with the cost of living, household savings are at a decade low as people dip into their savings to pay their bills and to keep their heads above water, and living standards are falling. Real net national disposable income per capita, which is a proxy for living standards, has barely grown under the Liberals and actually went backwards in the most recent quarter. That's before we get to the flat investment figures and other areas that should trouble us.

Despite all of these worrying trends, those opposite actually expect a pat on the back for an economy which isn't delivering for middle Australia. It isn't delivering for people who work and struggle in my electorate of Rankin or the member for Forde's electorate—indeed, right around the country. The reality is that the economy is growing despite the settings of the government and not because of them. We've had three prime ministers and three treasurers in the last five years but still the same old failure of those opposite to understand or care about the concerns that I've raised in my contribution today. If they actually cared about growing the economy in an inclusive way, they wouldn't be giving the biggest tax breaks to those who need them least. They wouldn't be ripping $17 billion out of our schools or neglecting skills and training. They wouldn't be destroying the NBN. These are all things which hamper growth in this country rather than contribute to it.

Unlike those opposite, we on this side of the House understand that the economic growth needs to be inclusive and it needs to be bottom up. It needs to come from investing in people's capacity and their productivity. It needs to come from targeting tax cuts to those most likely to spend them in the economy. That's why we've got bigger, fairer tax cuts for middle Australia. It needs to prioritise tax breaks for companies which will actually invest onshore and in Australian jobs. Twelve thousand businesses in Forde and 12,500 in Rankin would benefit from our Australian Investment Guarantee.

The economic mismanagement of those opposite extends to the budget as well. It's a matter of some shame to them that net debt has actually doubled in the five years of Liberal government in this country. Gross debt crashed through half a trillion dollars for the first time in the nation's history. On Friday, we had a new record of $535 billion under the Liberals.

Government members interjecting—

They can chirp all they want; this is their record. Both kinds of debt are growing faster under the Liberal Party than they did under Labor, and we had a GFC to contend with. People are sick of this divided, dysfunctional and unstable government led by an illegitimate PM whom they didn't vote for and who doesn't represent or even understand their interests or concerns.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remember the recession of the 1990s. I remember the cost, economic and human, that was incurred as a consequence of a downturn, when you walked down the main streets of places like Mornington or Hampton Street in Hampton, with boarded-up shops because there were no customers or anybody who could afford the rents. The reason we believe so strongly in a policy of maximising economic opportunity, economic management and economic prosperity is not that we understand the economic impact, though we do; it is that we understand the human impact of economic decline. We understand that it isn't just boarded-up shops because there are no customers; it's businesses no longer being able to create jobs to support families and workers. What's the impact? People do lose their jobs. There's family strain as people are no longer able to support themselves and their broader family. You get breakdown. You get families that can no longer afford to live where they own their own homes and have to sell. Ultimately that is the cost. I say this particularly for Australians under the age of 45, who have had the privilege of never having to live as an adult during a recession. I remember the last recession, the human impact and, more critically, the human cost that came with it. It isn't just about not having a bit of surplus cash in the family household budget; families had to take kids out of schools and relocate because they could no longer live where they chose to in past. That's why we think economic management and leadership matters so much. It isn't because we understand the economic impact; it is because we understand the human benefit.

Economic growth has for time immemorial been the most powerful instrument to improve the quality of life of the people it is there to serve. Growth has historically been driven by free markets and private enterprise, by individuals coming together to form businesses and commercial opportunities to benefit themselves and the community around them. Those kinds of opportunities have led to an unprecedented increase in living standards in most parts of the world today. Today it gives young Australians the opportunity to grow up in a society where they see optimism rather than pessimism at their core, but we can never take it for granted. The National Accounts June quarter 2018 highlight the strength and resilience of the Australian economy, but it does not happen by accident: 27 years of sustained consecutive economic growth is not experienced by most countries on earth.

We need to find ways to ensure our economy can continue to grow. That is what this government is doing. If you are part of the enormous middle-income-earning group of Australians, you will not pay more than 32 cents in the dollar under this government's economic plan to reduce tax burdens. We're ensuring not only that those who don't earn a high income are not carrying too much of the burden but also that those Australians who have done well carry part of the cost of society. What's the benefit? The reform package of this government has seen 140,000 Australians move from consuming the benefits of the tax system to standing on their own two feet, enjoying the pride and dignity that comes with work and supporting themselves and the people they love and care about so that they can live their own Australian dream; 1.1 million new people working in the private sector; and, most critically, 100,000 new jobs for young Australians who have come from school and gone into apprenticeships or tertiary education at TAFE or university level and then to the professional services or industries that will to build this nation's future economy for the generation after them. That's the choice we as a country made at the last election: to back a government that was going to deliver policies of sustained economic growth for Australians, and our new Prime Minister has made it clear that that is whom we are governing for—Australians.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before they called it trickledown economics there was a term known as horse-and-sparrow economics. The idea of horse-and-sparrow economics was that, if you want the sparrows to eat better, you just have to feed the horses enough and eventually there'll be enough left on the road for the sparrows. That is fundamentally the way in which the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government thinks about economic policy. Right now Australia needs a pay rise. Real wages have been essentially flat since 2012. Households are struggling to pay the bills. Real net national disposable income per capita, probably our best proxy for living standards in the National Accounts, has barely grown under the Liberals. Last quarter it went backwards.

There's a reason that this motion focuses on the headline GDP number. That is in large part because it's not adjusted for what households get and not adjusted for population growth. The government crow about the record number of Australians in work. They ought to be honest that the real driver of that is the record number of Australians. Australia has a strong migration program. We've increased the population markedly over recent decades. That's one of the reasons why the aggregate pie has increased. But average compensation for employees grew only 1.6 per cent for the year, meaning incomes aren't keeping up with the cost of living.

We've got company profits growing more than five times as fast as wages in Australia. There's a group of Australians who are enjoying decent pay rises, a group of Australians who saw almost a 10 per cent increase in real incomes in 2017. They are ASX 100 CEOs, who are doing extraordinarily well. If you look at the top 200 wealthiest Australians, their total wealth was up 21 per cent last year. But many Australians are not seeing the benefits of economic growth, and that would continue under the government's own projections. The Parliamentary Budget Office's review of medium-term budget projections points out:

Our distributional analysis highlights that the largest increases in average tax rates occur in the low- to middle-income groups.

Analysis by the Australia Institute found that high-income earners would get 95 per cent of the benefits from stage 3 of the government's income tax plan which disproportionately benefits millionaires and disproportionately benefits men.

The argument that some of those on the other side often run is, 'We have to give outlandish tax cuts to millionaires; otherwise, they'll leave and go elsewhere.' But when the AfrAsia Bank Global Wealth Migration Review looked at the migration of millionaires in the world it found that 10,000 millionaires moved to Australia last year and almost none left. They pointed out that it was the highest net migration of millionaires to any country last year in absolute terms. But if you look at a country like Singapore, with its famous 15 per cent tax rate, it only attracted 1,000 millionaires, one-tenth the number Australia did.

The economic benefit to Australian employment would come from more generous tax cuts to 10 million Australians, and that's Labor's tax plan. Labor are committed to getting wage growth going again. We believe in supporting penalty rates. We believe that unemployment can be lower than it is today. In the event that Australia had the unemployment rate of the United States or Germany, hundreds of thousands more Australians would be in work. We need to make sure the economy is operating in as competitive a manner as possible. The banking royal commission has uncovered some egregious conduct, yet the now Prime Minister voted against it 26 times. He's presided over the worst wages growth in a generation and a debt blowout. Gross debt now sits at $535 billion, almost double the $280 billion it was when the Liberals came to office. Net debt has almost doubled since the Liberals came to office, and both kinds of debt are growing faster now than they did in the global financial crisis. The previous speaker spoke about the damage done by the early 1990s recession. I share his concern. But why didn't Australia lose 200,000 jobs and 10,000 small businesses in the global financial crisis? It was because of the timely, targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus that Labor put in place. Under the Liberals, we have the economic numbers that matter going backwards. Inequality is too high and wage growth is too low. We need to make sure that we get away from 'horse and sparrow' and trickle-down economics.

Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased that the member for Forde has drawn our attention to the strong rate of growth that the Australian economy's experiencing because it could very easily go unnoticed by many Australians, including in my electorate of Dobell on the New South Wales Central Coast. It could easily pass you by if you were one of the 108,000 older Australians waiting, in some cases for over a year, for a home care package to allow you to stay safely and with dignity in your own home. It could easily pass you by if you're one of the 750,000 Australians struggling to get by on the Newstart allowance. It could easily pass you by if you're one of the thousands of school leavers who will miss out on a place at uni or TAFE next year because of this government's cuts to higher education funding. It could easily pass you by if you were one of the millions of low-income Australians deciding whether to put food on the table, visit a doctor, fill a prescription or turn on a heater this past winter. It could easily pass you by if you were one of the many young people on the Central Coast and the regional areas across Australia who are looking for work. If could easily pass you by if you were one of the many millions of Australian workers who have lost their weekend penalty rates or whose wages are not rising in line with the cost of living.

So, if the GDP is up but wages are flat, where is the money going? The answer is that company profits are growing more than five times as fast as wages. The member for Forde does suggest that if Australian workers are patient and wait just that little bit longer then wages might start to increase. Just a few weeks ago they were telling us that if we gave big businesses a tax cut they might—just might—pass on some of that as a wage increase to employees—not that there was a lot of evidence to support this idea. How much longer do Australian workers have to wait until the government abandons this discredited trickle-down economic theory and shows leadership on wages in Australia today?

The member for Forde also suggests that this growth means that the government will be in a position to fund essential services. If things are so good in the Australian economy, why aren't these essential services being properly funded right now? Is it because the government is still clinging on to the billions of dollars that they had earmarked in order to give tax cuts to the top end of town and they still can't quite bring themselves to abandon this idea and instead do the right thing and use some of that money to deliver essential services that Australia needs, particularly in rural and regional Australia?

Economic growth isn't, as some of those opposite seem to suggest, something that governments just conjure up and gift to the rest of us—the working people, the ordinary Australians. If anything, the economy is growing in spite of this government rather than because of anything it does. Our economy would be even stronger if we didn't have a divided government who are focused on themselves, giving the biggest tax breaks to those who need them least, ripping money out of education and health and destroying the NBN—which could have transformed regional Australia. Economic growth doesn't come from governments; it comes from ordinary Australians, everyday Australians, all doing their bit, putting up with the long commute to and from work. One in four people in my community on the Central Coast commute outside our region for work each day. Typically that means being at a train station by a quarter past five and a commute of up to two hours into the city or to Parramatta or Hornsby just to do their job. Then they come back at the end of their working day. Some people in my electorate are spending up to three or four hours a day commuting for work, supporting our economy, supporting their families. They deserve to see the benefits of this economic growth.

Economic growth is something that all Australians have contributed to and that all Australians deserve to share in the benefits of—those Australians who have kept going in the hard times through drought, those Australians who are juggling paid work and caring commitments, particularly those who are of a working age, and those Australians in my community who are starting small businesses or studying long hours to build and improve their skills to contribute to the Australian economy. Australians have worked hard to deliver this economic growth. They deserve to share in the benefits of this economic growth. This economic growth should deliver to them and their community, and they deserve to have it delivered right now. A Labor government will focus on growing the economy for everyone, boosting wages, dealing with cost-of-living pressures and delivering for all Australians.

I'll finish quickly, since the minister is in the House, by telling you about Tom Woods of Wadalba. Tom recently had a stroke and is waiting on a home-care package. The support he has right now is inadequate. Tom and his wife, Coral, are struggling. They had a small business, they worked hard and they deserve the care right now so that Tom can have an improved quality of life.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always love a great debate on economic management, especially against the Labor Party, because it is just like falling through the looking glass into a parallel universe. They stand up here and they say 'We need economic growth. And do you know why we need economic growth? So we can take more money from people who've created that growth. That's what we need.' They're all about division. They're all about taking, they're all about destroying, with not one single word about creating. It may strike the member for Dobell as extraordinary, but there are people in my electorate who have to travel three or four hours a day to get to work, too. There are people right across Australia who make sacrifices to get to work. And what do we give them for all the effort that they put into that? We tax them. We tax them so that they can fund social welfare programs that, according to the member for Fenner, have failed. I'm here to tell the member for Fenner that they haven't failed. Inequality is going down under this government. Inequality is at a record low in Australia because of the policies of this government. This government is about growing the cake, not spending all its time trying to divide and shrink the cake or telling one group of Australians that they should dislike the other group of Australians, because there's more that they can take from them.

This government is about building. The party I belong to is all about hope; the party on that side is all about nope. That's what we get. They should be coming into this chamber and thanking us. Since this government was elected 1,100 jobs have been created per day, but do they care about that? No. All they're worried about is, 'Why can't we get more tax from those people who have jobs, so we can give more away?' They're not worried about people; the only times they're worried about people is when they're not getting enough taxes out of them, when they need their votes or when they force them to join a union. The Labor Party is the party of division. It cannot cope with the success story of Australia. It never has and never will. The truth of the matter is that this government knows that governments don't grow economies, create wealth or, by and large, make things better. Governments need to get out of the way, because Australians make our economy and our country great—not union officials or social welfare programs; people. The ordinary Australians—

Ms McBride interjecting—

decried by the member for Dobell, who get up at 5 am, go to work, work hard, and then go home and look after their kids, are the people the Liberal Party has always supported and always will support, often in the face of the Labor Party's trenchant opposition. Just today we heard they're going to play games over the TPP. Why? Because they can. Is there one skerrick of policy rationale for what they're doing? Absolutely not; they have no idea what they're talking about. Free trade has created more wealth than any other single policy in the history of humanity. For 50 years we followed their recipe of government funded foreign and development aid to try to shift global poverty. You want to know what happened? We spent a lot of money on bureaucrats achieving absolutely nothing. In three decades of free trade 2.1 billion people have been lifted out of global poverty—the sort of poverty where you have to decide whether you want a meal for yourself or one for your kids.

That's the type of policy the Labor Party is opposed to. Why? So they can play politics. Why else? So they can lie to people, tell them that their jobs will be worse off, and run industrial campaigns claiming things are going to get worse when we all know that things are going to get better. How do we know that? Because Australia at the moment has a faster growth rate—you may be interested in growth; that's the thing that creates jobs and wealth for you blokes to tax so you can transfer it to someone else. Then you can carry on and say how inequality is getting worse when in fact inequality is at a 75-year low. The Labor Party should get on board with this government's economic management, because we're making things happen and you're destroying people's lives.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mackellar and give him his last warning that comments go through the chair.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, Mr Chair.

The DEPUT Y SPEAKER: I gave you a bit of a run, but you kept it up.

Ged Kearney (Batman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a farce this motion is! The government is struggling to even get their own members in the House to debate it. The member for Forde seems to be suggesting that the economy is in good shape and there has never been a better time to be a worker in Australia. That couldn't be further from the truth. Working Australians know their part of the economy has gone into reverse gear: 30 years of experimenting with trickledown economics has failed to secure fair jobs, a living wage and fair pay rises for working people. It has failed to prepare a secure future for us, by failing to deal with the climate emergency and a just transition for workers in affected industries. It has failed our public services and the wellbeing of our communities.

The latest GDP figures show the continued poor return that workers are getting from the economy. While company profits are soaring, real living standards and incomes continue to fall. Company profits are growing more than five times faster than wages. Living standards are not growing under the Liberals and have actually stayed at the same level since 2011. The majority of Australian workers are seeing real wages decline. For the whole economy, real wages have stagnated. Real household disposable income is at the same level it was seven years ago. Workers have not been receiving their fair share of productivity improvements for a long time, while profits have soared.

Headline figures about unemployment levels provide a misleading guide when trying to judge the strength of the labour market. In recent years, the much of the job growth has been casual or part time. Those are jobs with no security and no benefits. Making ends meet has an uphill struggle for workers for some time. As housing costs and other expenses continue to rise, most working families now feel they are being asked to climb a mountain just to survive. Australia has forfeited its reputation for a fair go as income inequality has increased.

No, member for Forde, most women are not 'enjoying employment outcomes'. Women get paid less. Women are increasingly locked out of a secure retirement. Women make up the majority of workers who are reliant on the minimum wage. Women are more vulnerable to exploitative, casualised and increase forms of work due to deep-rooted social norms that women face. Women have more disruptions over their working lives by taking on the majority of responsibility by caring for children, family members or ageing parents.

The members opposite suggest that there are no grounds for panic over pay. They argue for patience and say that over time economic growth will produce a tighter labour market and an automatic rebound in wage growth. This advice is not convincing. I'm sorry, but it is very small comfort for those who are struggling right now. Any given rate of unemployment is now associated with a weaker pace of wage growth by virtue of the erosion of structural and institutional supports for wages. We need a comprehensive package of reforms to boost the power of workers. It is clear we need stronger labour market institutions and an alternative to the low-paid bargaining stream, which isn't working, if Australia is to return to normal levels of wage growth.

The key point is this: a tighter labour market is a necessary but not sufficient condition to boost wages growth. We need to have a proactive approach to getting wage growth on track again. A laissez-faire, sit-back-and-see approach simply won't hack it. Australia is facing an unprecedented wage crisis as average wage increases for the private sector, which account for 85 per cent of the Australian workforce, rose just 1.9 per cent and living standards remain at the same level they were in 2011. The asymmetry in power between the employer and worker in Australia has reached such a level that faster economic growth and a return to full employment will be insufficient to spontaneously boost real wages. A minor tinkering with our labour laws and waging fixing machinery would also be an inadequate response to the wage cuts.

We need a comprehensive package of reforms to boost the power of workers. We need to strengthen our labour market institutions and find an alternative to the low-paid bargaining stream. We need to institute a living wage, not a minimum wage. We need to raise public sector pay and regulate growing levels of insecure work. We should encourage union membership and help our unions to do their job in keeping wages commensurate with productivity, like they do in Europe and other high-wage countries. Only then will we see wage growth return to normal levels.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak on this motion today, which recognises the strength of the Australian economy. A strong economy benefits every single person in my community, in my electorate of Boothby, in my home state of South Australia and in the nation. On this side of the House, we know that when the economy is strong we can afford to invest more money in services for our communities like health care, education and infrastructure. On this side of the House, we know that when the economy is strong more jobs are created.

In fact, more than 330,000 jobs were created in the last financial year, which is the largest jobs growth in a financial year since 2004-05. This is more than double the jobs achieved, on average, under the previous federal Labor government. This is particularly important in my home state of South Australia, where, after years of federal and state Labor governments, we saw high unemployment and poor business and investor confidence. Thankfully, together with the newly elected South Australian Liberal government, we are turning things around, because that's what Liberal governments do.

A strong economy means we can afford to equip our Australian Defence personnel with the capability they need to keep themselves safe and to keep Australians safe; and to support the manufacturing industry in Australia. Our $35 billion future frigate and $50 billion Future Submarine projects will be built in Adelaide, injecting billions of dollars into our local economy. We know there are going to be 4,000 jobs created by the future frigate project alone: 1,500 direct jobs at the Osborne shipyard and 2,500 jobs throughout the supply chain. Overall, the shipbuilding plan will see 15,000 jobs created: 5,000 directly in South Australia and the rest throughout the country.

When the economy is strong, we can also afford to lower taxes, and that's exactly what we have done, because we believe Australians should keep more of what they earn. We've delivered tax relief to every hardworking Australian, including immediate relief of up to $530 a year for low- and middle-income earners, because we know Australians have been doing it tough when it comes to cost of living. In my electorate of Boothby alone, almost 66,000 taxpayers will benefit from an extra $500 in their pockets. We're also supporting small and medium businesses, with around three million Australian businesses already benefitting from more competitive tax rates courtesy of our legislated tax cuts, and just last week we extended the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses.

Thanks to our investment in health, the money going back into the pockets of hardworking Australians won't need to be used to visit the doctor or to pay for medicines, because we have record bulk-billing rates of 86.1 per cent and more than 1,500 new and amended medicines listed on the PBS since 2013. The coalition government is also investing an extra $23.5 billion in schools over the next decade, with funding per student increasing on average by around 50 per cent over a decade.

A strong economy means we can invest more and deliver more for our communities. In my community, we are investing in infrastructure to bust congestion and make travelling safer. Oaklands crossing is finally being fixed after 40 long years thanks to the federal government's $95 million contribution, which I fought hard for to deliver to my community. I also secured $43 million to extend the Tonsley rail line to Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, and $2 million for the Marion Road Planning Study to ensure my residents spend less time in traffic.

A strong economy means we can invest in our local sport and community clubs. I have been working hard to support all of the wonderful groups in my community. I fought for and secured federal funding to rebuild the clubrooms at Hewett reserve in Blackwood, for new facilities at St Marys sports park for the Kenilworth Football Club and to upgrade the courts and lighting for the Warradale Park Tennis Club. I've been able to support the Seacliff, Brighton and Somerton Surf Live Saving clubs to install solar panels, and provided $150,000 of federal funding for a new beach watchtower for the Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club to keep Australians safe.

I could go on, because there is a very long list of projects that have been delivered for my electorate of Boothby, but the key message is that, when the economy is strong, we can afford to invest more into the services, infrastructure and national defence that our nation needs. I'm proud that my community, hardworking Australians, are seeing this first hand.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion proves just how out of touch this government is. The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government is completely out of touch. Instead of having some sympathy for—

Mr Falinski interjecting—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Mackellar, this will be your last warning. You were heard in silence.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

how tough Australians are doing it, they seek to come into this place and congratulate themselves for the state of the economy at the moment. I do agree with one element of this particular motion, that it is quite remarkable that Australia has entered its 27th year of consecutive economic growth. We do hold a world record as a nation for managing to grow our economy over that period, particularly during the wake of the global financial crisis, when Labor acted quickly when we were in government to buffer our economy and ensure that Australians remained in employment.

But the foundation for that growth that we've experienced over those 27 years is no doubt the strong action and foresight of the Hawke and Keating governments in the reforms that they made when they were in government, which really laid the foundation for the strength of the Australian economy at the moment. Those were the governments that restructured our economy to modernise it. They opened up our economy, reduced tariffs and restructured our financial markets, including by floating the dollar and introducing foreign competition into the banking sector. They introduced competition policy, particularly into airlines and utilities, that saw greater benefits for customers and consumers. They basically created a competitive, open, durable economy that benefited all Australians, and it is all Australians that have benefited from that great work of the Hawke and Keating years.

But a key feature of that process of economic reform from the Hawke and Keating governments was to protect the vulnerable within Australian society. They did this through what was known as the social wage. Although there was a need to get wages growth down at the time, there was investment in the social wage. I'm talking about the establishment of Medicare. We all know that, at the time when the Hawke government introduced Medicare, those opposite, the conservatives in Australian politics, voted against it. They voted against it to the extent that they actually sent it back to an election. There was an election in 1984 about the conservatives' failure to pass Medicare and to agree to the will of the Australian people. We all know now that Medicare is a great benefit to the Australian people. Those governments established compulsory superannuation savings to ensure Australians would have enough to retire on in old age. They established the Prices and Incomes Accord. So, as the economy grew, living standards increased for all Australians and no-one was left behind.

That's the significant difference between the way that a Labor government reforms our economy and the conservatives, because we all know that, although our economy is growing at the moment, the average Australian is not feeling the joy from that growth. The average Australian is still struggling, and the benefits of that economic growth are not being shared equitably amongst all Australians. While profits are up, wages are certainly down and people's living standards are falling further and further behind. We have got record low wages growth in Australia at the moment and record levels of household debt, and that is why most Australians are feeling the pinch.

At the same time, this government has cut Medicare. They attempted to introduce the co-payment, and they've cut the rebate for diagnostic imaging. They made cuts to the tune of about $2 billion to hospital funding. They have made cuts to schools. There's an $11 billion difference between what Labor is proposing through a needs based model and what this government is delivering. They have made cuts to TAFE and completely decimated vocational training in this country. They have made cuts to university funding, cuts to homelessness services and cuts to aged care. It's laughable that they're talking about a royal commission into aged care in this country when they're partly to blame for that by cutting funding for that sector. Of course, we all know what's going on with energy policy and the ridiculous increases in electricity costs that households, consumers and small businesses have had to face because of this government. So, instead of coming in here and congratulating themselves, perhaps they should get out there in the real world and see just how the average Australian household, pensioner or small business is doing it in this country.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by the member for Forde, and what a good motion it is—more good news for our economy and more jobs created under the coalition government's strong economic management. Since coming to government in 2013, we've created a million jobs and counting. Now, with the economic growth and jobs growth exceeding expectations, while this continues we can expect a lift in wages growth, in the words of the RBA governor.

Jobs and wage growth are my constituents' No. 1 concern. They ask: what are we doing to create more jobs? Those of them who are putting in the hours at work are still struggling to meet rising power prices and cost of living, so I'm pleased to tell them that, under the coalition, unemployment is at its lowest rate since 2012. Last year we created over 400,000 jobs. Three-quarters of these were full-time jobs. Compare that to the previous Labor government, they averaged less than 150,000 new jobs each year and when they left office unemployment was going up. They were losing full-time jobs.

In my electorate, the effects of our booming economy have been clear. I have to thank the member for Forde for one project that has been a great boost for local jobs and that is that he started the fight for funding to upgrade the M1. It was great to work with him and my Queensland colleagues to secure $1 billion for these vital upgrades. Not only will these upgrades reduce peak-hour congestion, getting people to work sooner and safer, they will also support up to 450 local jobs, a double win for our local economy.

Another job creating, congestion-busting project that's now underway in my electorate is the upgrade of the Green Camp Road corridor. I have enjoyed seeing construction start on this much needed project.

Then there is the $300 million Brisbane Metro project, which is now in the expression of interest phase. Another example of this great government's commitment to invest in vital infrastructure while creating local jobs.

There are many more small-scale projects in my electorate that this government has invested in that will provide a boost for the local economy and local employment. I'm seeing the benefits of this firsthand. I fully support this motion and this government's commitment to strong economic growth.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.