House debates

Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Questions without Notice

Budget

2:39 pm

Photo of Nicolle FlintNicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the Morrison government is providing record spending on essential services because of its stable and certain budgetary management? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies that may undermine the resilience of our economy?

Photo of Josh FrydenbergJosh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | | Hansard source

I want to congratulate the member for Boothby for withstanding those grubby, disgraceful attacks from GetUp!, supported by the Labor Party. They were attacking her personally. The fact that she is back in this place is not only a credit to her and all the people who supported her but a credit to the values of the Liberal Party and a credit to the people of Boothby for selecting her. In her electorate, there are more than 70,000 taxpayers who are getting a tax cut as a result of tax policies that we supported on this side of the House and those opposite opposed. And more than 20,000 small businesses are going to be able to access the instant asset write-off that we announced in this year's budget.

As I've said before, and I'm saying it again: the budget is back in the black and back on track, and we've done that without increasing taxes. When we came to government, we inherited an economy where unemployment was rising, investment was falling and we saw $240 billion of accumulated deficits. But, through disciplined and considered policymaking, now we're starting to pay back Labor's debt, we've got the budget back in control and we've seen the current accounts, for the first time in 40 years, come into surplus. We've seen welfare dependency at a 30-year low, we've seen the biggest tax cuts in more than 20 years, we've seen the first balanced budget in 11 years and we'll see the first surplus budget in 12 years.

The ability to have a disciplined economic approach to get balanced budgets and surplus budgets to pay down Labor's debt also allows the government to spend more on the essential services that people need and deserve, like increasing school and hospital funding by around 60 per cent; fully funding the NDIS to ensure that hundreds of thousands of people will get support; the recent package we announced for aged care—record funding for aged care; and, of course, drought support of more than a billion additional dollars that we have announced since the election. We know that S&P have said that the Australian economy has a sound outlook, we know that Deloittes have said the momentum is picking up, and we know that the Reserve Bank of Australia has said the economy has reached a gentle turning point. With considered and disciplined economic management by this Prime Minister and by members on this side of the House, the Australian people will continue to see more jobs created and lower taxes.