Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how the Morrison government's economic plan has been delivering for Australians and backs the aspiration and enterprise of Australians to create a stronger future for our nation.

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

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. The member for Chisholm, who was elected, made commitments and has kept them to the people of Chisholm, as we have made commitments which we have kept and we have delivered. Central to those is our economic plan. Our economic plan is working because Australians are working. As a government, our economic plan has meant that Australia's unemployment rate has fallen to four per cent from five per cent. When the Labor Party were in power, they took the unemployment rate from 4.2 per cent and put it up to 5.7 per cent. The youth unemployment now is in single digits. A million more women are in work today, and the female unemployment rate in this country is at its lowest level since 1974.

Our economic plan is equipping Australians with the skills that they need. We have more trade apprentices in training right now, 220,000. That is more than at any other time in Australia's recorded history going back to 1963. Our economic plan has backed in businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, to invest in and retain their apprentices. What that means is business is supported by lower taxes. We have cut the tax rate for small and medium-sized businesses to 25 per cent. Our instant asset right-off and medial expensing provisions have given business the confidence to invest so we have a business-led recovery out of this pandemic.

Our economic plan is rejuvenating manufacturing in Australia, so we are making more things in Australia, particularly with advanced manufacturing. Our economic plan is connecting regions to more markets. It is connecting businesses to the digital economy. Our economic plan is securing affordable, reliable energy for households and businesses right across the country.

We are not doing this through higher taxes; that is the Labor Party's approach. We are doing it through sensible investments that have driven down the cost of electricity by eight per cent over the last two years. It is an economic plan that has secured our AAA credit rating at a time of great economic crisis, and our government's economic plan has delivered that. That is what we have delivered.

Our economic plan has taken us through this pandemic to have one of the strongest economies in the world today for advanced economies that has seen 40,000 lives saved, has seen 375,000 additional jobs, putting us on the top of the advanced economies of the world with stronger growth, more jobs and less debt than our comparative economies around the world, including the G7. (Time expired)