Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the remaining few minutes of this debate I want to make a few points. The first thing I'm going to do is remind those opposite that there was an election in our recent past. An election is a competition of ideas. We each took a set of policy parameters to the people of Australia, and the people of Australia had their say. I find it very interesting that Senator Green was talking about infrastructure spending in Queensland. The situation that the voters in Queensland faced during the election was one where they considered two plans, and they delivered a pretty decisive result. I would encourage Senator Green to perhaps go back and have a look at the numbers that flowed in Queensland to the respective parties.

This is an issue that the government takes extraordinarily seriously. I wish to quote from a media release from the Treasurer, Mr Frydenberg. The media release is titled, 'Economic headwinds require strong economic management'. Acknowledging those economic headwinds is very important. The media release quoted, in part, the RBA talking about how growth in international trade has declined and how investment intentions have softened in a number of countries. It talked about the downgrading in the budget of the international economic growth rates. Mr Frydenberg went on to say:

At home, we face our own challenges with the impact of flood and drought, as well as a cooling housing market and its impact on household consumption.

When was this media release? Was it this week? Was it last week? No; it was before the election.

The government has been very up-front with the people of Australia about some of the challenges faced by the economy. We are being very realistic. At the election we took to the people of Australia a plan which set out how we were going to deal with the challenges that faced us, how we would keep our economy strong, how we would keep Australians in jobs and how we would maintain the 28 years of economic growth that all Australians are enjoying.

I think it's very important to remember that there are many people alive and in the workforce today who have only ever known positive economic growth from Australia as a nation. I, unfortunately, am a little bit older than that, so I can remember some of the recessions of the past. I was a teenager when we had 'the recession we had to have'—a devastating recession that devastated small business right across Australia, particularly in rural and regional Australia. It is something that I certainly remember with a great deal of trepidation. Those 28 years of economic growth are something that we should always celebrate but never take for granted. That is why this government took to the election an economic policy that would continue those years of economic growth and continue to keep our economy strong and resilient in the face of international economic headwinds.

Sitting suspended from 18:30 to 19:30