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

I thank the member for Monash for his question. In the last six months, since we were re-elected as a government, we have delivered that tax relief for Australians that we promised—a generational change in their tax to ensure that they can keep more of what they earn. On top of that, we have brought infrastructure investment, some $3.8 billion, into the forward estimates—about $1.8 billion in this year alone, and next year. Those are important investments in the future of our economy which bring benefits today and benefits tomorrow as opposed to the fiscal stimulus measures pursued by the Labor Party when they were in government, which was a moment on the lips and a decade on the debt of this country and more.

So we have been delivering the important investments in our economy. We have seen a resurgence in the confidence in the housing market, which has been noted by economists as one of the key ingredients to boosting confidence more generally in the economy. The reason for that is we did not pursue the higher taxing policies on housing which Labor was seeking to do at the last election, and there was a sense of relief for Australians that their housing wouldn't be hit with higher taxes, their investments that they'd worked hard for wouldn't be hit with higher taxes and all of those matters had been addressed.

The Deloitte fiscal monitor today says the government's economic policy settings are right and our policies of tax cuts and accelerated and increased infrastructure investment are helping to underpin our economic growth. It's not just that; on national security today we announced the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, which builds on the work we've been doing to give our agencies the tools and resources to counter the evolving threat of foreign interference. On top of that, we have passed the temporary exclusion orders into law to ensure that we're protected against, in these cases, the return of foreign fighters. We have acted on child sexual exploitation laws, and we've released and are acting on the Illicit Drugs Action Plan.

I also note, when it comes to emissions reduction, that the latest inventory of Australia's emissions shows that, at the year to June 2019, economy-wide emissions fell 0.1 per cent, or 0.4 million tonnes and they are lower than they were at the time we came to government in 2013 and have fallen for the past two years. On top of that, since the election we've announced a ban on the export of waste of plastic, glass, paper and tyres. These are the things we're doing to act on the security of Australians, whether it's on their national security, their safety, their economic security or their environmental security. In the last six months, we've been getting on with it; the Labor Party have been playing political games.