Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

I am trying, Deputy President, but it's hard to hear myself over the interjections about New South Wales Labor.

Why don't they want to ask questions about the economy? They took a plan to the last election for $387 billion of extra taxes. And as we respond to some of the challenges that we face, as we respond to the bushfire crisis—when they finally got to a question around the bushfire crisis, they didn't go into the overall response; they just tried to play word games with what the minister had said. They didn't go into the fact that we are delivering 6½ thousand personnel on the ground, $1,000 per eligible adult, $800 per child, $52.6 million paid out across 44,000 claims, the Australian government disaster recovery allowance, payments to volunteer firefighters, $75,000 recovery grants to primary producers, $50,000 grants to affected businesses, $500,000 loans—the list goes on. The reason we can do that is that we have focused on the fundamentals. Unlike the Labor Party, we have focused on the fundamentals: a strong economy, strong budgetary management, making sure we get the policies right.

As we debate the future of our nation, if the Labor Party's pathway forward is to continue with the insider nitpicking then they will continue to get the same results, and the Australian people will see what the Labor Party are about. When it comes to the Liberal and National government, we are about delivering a strong economy, a safe Australia, a prosperous Australia and the services that Australians deserve, which we can deliver because of our strong budgetary and economic management—something those across the aisle could only dream of. (Time expired)