PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much, Angus. That’s very kind, and that’s very generous. You’ve done an absolutely amazing job. I said when he was, when I appointed him as the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, I said he was the Minister for getting electricity prices down, and the last two years, electricity prices have fallen by eight per cent. So well done, Angus on an extraordinary job. And it’s great to be here with you all today.
Can I also, can I begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, their elders past, present and future and emerging. Can I acknowledge any men and women of our Defence Forces and therefore veterans who are here today, as I always love to do, because we have the country that we have because of the sacrifice that they have made. It’s that simple. The liberty and freedom we enjoy is down to them, not just the earning of it – in the first case where they’ve been in conflicts – but the keeping of it. And last night we had the great privilege to hear from President Zelenskyy who gave an impassioned and very moving speech to our Parliament, the centre of our democracy here. And as I was sitting there and I was listening to him, and I’ve spoken to him before and of course his Prime Minister on several occasions, I couldn’t help but think, imagine if that was here in Australia. And we must. We must imagine and we must do everything we can to ensure, we can to ensure that Australia never, ever finds itself in a situation like that. And it’s because it’s not unimaginable, as President Zelenskyy was reminding us all last night. He reminded us that you must always be vigilant on these things. And like-minded countries must always band together. And when you see bullies and when you see autocracies and you call them out, as I have, whether they’re over there in Russia or elsewhere, even in our own region. And that, combined with the investments we make, and the belief we have in our Defence Forces, and our economic security and the strength of our society, that’s how we continue to protect one of the world’s oldest democracies here in Australia.
Can I, it’s always a thrill to be here with John Howard, as I know it is for all of you as well. And so, John, thank you very much for being here today. John has been in more campaigns than anyone in this room, and he’s as effective as he’s ever been. And I really want to thank you, John, for being on our team, as you always are. You’ve always said, and Nick and I were talking about here at the table, Alan and I, I should say, were talking about at the table, that John has always acknowledged that the opportunity to serve in public life and do everything he did came through his membership of the Liberal Party and the support of the Liberal Party, and the support of of those who are with us here today in the same way. And I concur, and the same is true for me and all of my colleagues who are here today – Angus and Sussan and David and Jason is here, and it’s great to have you here. Dave’s here as well, and Dr Michael Feneley is here. Now, Michael stand up for a sec. Dr Michael Feneley is our Liberal candidate for Dobell. I was up there with him just the other day and straight after this he’s getting in the car and driving straight back home and knocking on as many doors as he can. And he needs your help up there to support that. And so it’s great to have you here, Michael, with us here today, and thank you. He has, I mean, the intellectual horsepower that Dr Michael Feneley brings to our team is extraordinary. And so thank you, Michael, for joining us, and being part of our team.
Can I of course acknowledge Philip Ruddock, the State President, here, and Chris Stone. Can I acknowledge Mark Baillieand the great job he does in our coming on as Treasurer of the Liberal Party here in New South Wales. And thank you very much for taking on that role, Mark.
There are many people here who I’ve known for a very long time. And they’ve been great supporters, and you’ve been there in difficult times, you’ve been there in great times. I was remarking to John when we came in here – and Fiona, of course, Fiona Martin, I see, it’s great to have Fiona here as well – I quite like this room, John quite likes this room, we particularly like coming here on election nights, more often than not. And I’m looking forward to coming back to this room not too long from now again, because in the months ahead, we will engage on an extremely important contest.
You know, we say every time this is the most important election that Australia has seen, and it’s always true. It’s always true, because at every single election Australians make a choice – either to keep on a direction that has been strong, or to change direction, because an election is a choice, an election the nation decides. And it’s a very important decision. And it’s not one that’s rushed into, I believe, particularly those Australians quietly going about their lives in between elections. As the election comes, they narrow their focus, they make their assessments, they see through the false claims that can be made by Oppositions seeking to sneak their way into government, and they make a call. Because the choice you make in an election, it’s not an opinion that you’re expressing. It’s not a sentiment that you’re sharing. It’s not a post you make on Facebook. It’s not any of those things, because, you know, none of those things have consequences. They don’t. When you mark Dr Michael Feneley in the seat of Dobell, or Dave Sharma in the seat of Wentworth, or Fiona Martin in the seat of Reid, Scott Morrison in the seat of Cook, or the Labor alternative, there are consequences that flow from those decisions.
Positive consequences when it comes to the selection of the Government’s team in the Liberals and the Nationals, but they are very real consequences of changing course. And that’s where I think politics gets very serious. Most of the time, Australians tend not to talk a lot about politics. They talk about other things, things that are happening in their lives each and every day. People in Canberra, they talk about politics all the time. But that’s not what they’re focusing on, those Australians who are quietly going about their business. But as the election gets closer, they understand it’s important, and they focus in.
And they certainly have been this week, as we’ve announced our Budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has done an outstanding job, together with Simon Birmingham and the whole ERC team, the Budget Committee. This is the eighth budget I’ve been directly involved with. Firstly on the Expenditure Review Committee back in 2015-16. Christopher Pyne’s here, he’ll remember, he was sitting around the Cabinet table at that time. He was coming in making submissions to us for the Budget at that time. He was quite successful, too. They were very good submissions, just ask Christopher, he’ll tell you. But then three Budgets as Treasurer and that 18-19 Budget that saw Australia bring the Budget back into balance just as we were about to hit the pandemic. And then of course, four Budgets now as Prime Minister.
Now I tell you that, that those eight Budgets, through that process, you learn an enormous amount and they condition you. And when the pandemic hit 2019-20, I was pretty pleased that I had four under my belt going into that Budget, as Prime Minister with the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. I was very pleased because that sort of experience in moments like that count. Now, it’s no secret that my opponent at this election has never done one. He hasn’t. He wasn’t even given the job of sitting on the Budget Committee by any of the Prime Ministers he served under. Never held a financial management portfolio. And today I want to talk a bit about why this is important and talk to you about this year’s Budget.
Now you’ve heard what’s in the Budget, and you would have heard it from Sussan, you would have heard it from Angus and Josh and the many other ministers. And they’re, you’re going to keep hearing about what’s in it – over and over again. And that’s important. David will be telling you about what’s in the Budget for mental health, one of our most significant areas of focus, particularly over these last two years. But I want to tell you a bit more about what’s behind it today. I want to share with you the whys and the hows, not just the whats – the decisions and the priorities that you set when you’re doing a Budget. It’s not a speech. This is a detailed, extensively worked through plan that takes many, many months in its preparations, many hours of working through the details, and if you don’t know those details, if you don’t know the pitfalls, if you don’t know the questions, then you can do a great deal of harm.
I want to talk about what it’s trying to achieve. I want to talk about how we’re going to do what’s in that Budget, because I believe they’re the things that should and will determine the choice that Australians make as they go to this election. Because you know, when, as Angus rightly said, and John Howard has said this before as well, when you face a crisis, what matters, then, is, frankly, you may have had any number of different things that you were hoping to do in that moment, but when the crisis hits, it’s how you make decisions. The values that underpin those decisions. It’s the strength of your resilience and your character that actually is tested in those moments. Now you all know that, having run businesses and been in similar situations, I’m sure, of leadership. It’s these things that actually determine. Yes, the public will look at the the various promises that are made and and they’ll see that, and Labor’s won’t add up and they won’t be able to fund them. And all those things, and ours are clearly set out in a Budget and people will look at that. But what I’d encourage them to do is go a little bit deeper, because what’s a little bit deeper is actually going to determine how people respond in that crisis.
One thing I’ve learnt from John Howard is what you believe matters. And it’s not just what you say you believe five minutes before an election that’s mattered. It’s what you believed for the last 20, 30 years that matters, because that’s when the memory kicks in, in those moments of crisis. So at this election, I come to you as a pretty open book, whether you like it that I play the ukulele or not doesn’t matter. I’m not going to be elected on my ukulele playing skills, that’s for certain. But my girls like it. And that’s what matters to them. But it’s not going to matter as to who you’re going to pick as a Prime Minister. What is going to matter is something much deeper. And I’ve set out very clearly all the things I’ve believed over a very long period of time in public life and backed that up, and the eight Budgets I’ve been a part of, and you will find the consistent thread guaranteeing the essentials that Australians rely on. How do I guarantee that? By ensuring that we’ve got an economy that is strong and able to pay for it, and that if you can’t manage an economy, if you can’t manage the finances, then you can make whatever promise you like on health, you can make whatever promise you like on education. But you may as well written it on tissue paper, because it will just break up. If you don’t have a strong economic plan, then you cannot deliver what you say you’re going to do. And so Anthony Albanese, frankly, I think, John, you probably agree with this, I think, the Liberal Party supported the Hawke Keating Government on economic policy more than Anthony Albanese did. He would go to Labor conferences and rail against the terrible things that the Hawke Keating Government were doing on economic reform, and he’d pound the table appearing, appealing to his leftie mates in the Labor Party. And now he has the gall to stand there and say he’d be a Prime Minister like Hawke. And even more amazing, he thinks he’d be a Prime Minister like John Howard, someone who he sledged and slammed all the time of that government. Give me a break.
You can’t be Prime Minister if you’re pretending to be someone else. And the Australian people need to have a good look at who this this chap is. I’ve known him for a long time. And the things that he says that he believes in now are not the things he was saying and doing for all of his parliamentary life and indeed beyond, because you know what happens when the pressure comes on? That’s the stuff that comes out. All the stuff that is written on the tissue paper that you see from the Labor Party at the moment, it will burn up and they’ll go to type.
So in talking about, I think this should guide the decisions and understanding the whys and the hows, not just the what. Now Nick Politis is here. I’ve known Nick for some time, and Nick is a very successful businessman. And regrettably, for the Sharks, he’s an even more successful chairman of, I still call it Easts, Nick, I suspect you do, too, but of the Roosters. Not doing as well this year, but they’ll come good over the course of the season and we’re off to a pretty good start. If I get started on that, I won’t shut up, so I’m going to come back to the topic. Nick has been a very successful businessman in running his dealerships in the motor vehicle industry for a very long time. And Nick knows how people make choices. And as business people, you know how people make choices as well. And it’s your job as business people to really understand their process and what you need to be able to convince them of when they make that choice. And the best business people are the ones who understand the smart customers. And the best customers are the smart customers, because they’re the ones who if you earn their trust, they keep coming back, don’t they, Nick, time and time and time again. It’s not a one off thing. It is an ongoing relationship. And those smart customers, this is what they do. And this is what I believe the election will be like. They’ll do their homework, they won’t make a decision that is just on the spur of the moment. They will carefully do their homework. They will diligently look at, identify and they’ll test the alternatives. And they’ll really consider about what will that, what will that mean for me? Will I get the mileage they want? How much will it cost to run it? What will be the servicing? Can I get spare parts for it? What’s the manufacturer? What’s the guarantee? All important questions when they’re doing their homework, and you know what they won’t be, they won’t be distracted, will they, Nick, by the, by the flashy features. You can go to the car yards where they’ve got lots of flashy features, and they’re just hoping you don’t look under the hood. They’re hoping you don’t look under the hood. But the smart customers do, and I believe Australians are like that.
And this election campaign is an opportunity to look under that hood. And they’re always wary, the smart customers, of those who want to push you for that really quick sale. They want to get you into that little room and not let you leave until you sign. The last thing they want you to do is walk out that door. But the smart customers are always wary of that. And you know what I was thinking of last night when Anthony Albanese was saying, “Call it now, call it now, call it now.” He wasn’t looking forward to his alternative being looked at by the Australian people over the next couple of months. I guarantee you, they’re going to get that chance, Anthony, every single day, and I’m happy to have that measured up against what my Government has been doing every single day. And so I encourage Australians to look under that hood. You’re very welcome. I would want you to look at what we’re doing. I would want you to look at our record. I would want you to look at our plan and the detailed plans that we have. And I want you to test that in equal detail and in equal measure with what is being put forward by the Labor Party.
You might not find sometimes the flashy gimmicks. But what you will find with us is an after sales service that we’ve demonstrated. What you will find is a manufacturer’s guarantee on our policies that’s backed up by consistent economic and strong performance over a long time. Australians know that the Liberal and National parties under my leadership, they know when it comes to managing the economy, when it comes to keeping Australians safe in some of the most turbulent times we’ve faced, then we can back that guarantee up.
So to talk specifically about the Budget, when you do a Budget, you’ve got to know where you’re starting from and the starting point is different, every single year, the economy has changed an enormous amount and can over, as we’ve learned, particularly during the pandemic, in a matter of months. And so you got to have a good understanding of the situation that you’re facing and the situation we’re facing now in this Budget has changed since last year. And you know what, the biggest change is since when the Treasurer has outlined the Budget in May of last year, the biggest change is the Budget bottom line has improved by over one hundred billion dollars. In one year. And why has that happened, because Australia is coming out of the pandemic, economic recession that we had is caused by that, stronger than any other advanced country in the world. Stronger than the United Kingdom, stronger than the United States, stronger than Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada. Stronger than all of them. Both on jobs and on economic growth. Our debt is lower than all of theirs, despite what we’ve had to do over the last couple of years. Still lower than all of them, still more resilient. Stronger growth, unemployment heading down, underemployment heading down. And that’s the situation we now find ourselves in. We’ve been able to steer the Australian economy through one of the most difficult times, if not the most difficult time since the Great Depression and the Second World War.
So we have been able through our economic plan coming into this Budget to get ourselves in a much stronger position. And it didn’t happen by accident. It was not luck. I can assure you. As pandemic, fire, flood, plague would hit us. We weren’t feeling very lucky, I can tell you. So despite all that, the economic plan that has seen us through has got us to that point. And the hard work of Australians and their resilience on which our economic plan is based on has got us through to that point. And I was making this point in the Parliament this week and I was saying how unemployment under our government has fallen from 5.7 per cent down to 4 percent. And I said how under the Labor Party, the unemployment rate, that John Howard and Peter Costello left to the Labor Party, had gone from 4.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent. And Anthony Albanese chipped me across the table, he said, oh, you’re forgetting the global financial crisis. And I said, where have you been for the last two years? Through this pandemic, we have faced an economic challenge 30 times worse than the global financial crisis, 30 times worse. Yet we have achieved an employment outcome in this country that was 50 per cent better then what the Labor Party did when they were faced with a challenge, which was hard sure, but compared to this one, just not even in the same league. So that’s where we are. That was our starting point for this year’s Budget and a starting point that was hard earned that we’d spent many years getting ourselves to.
And then you get down to understanding, well, what does this Budget need to do? And these were the three things we knew we had to do. First, we had to deal with the risks that we were facing. We had to then ensure that we secured the recovery that was underway in our economy that we’d worked hard for and built up for. And thirdly, we had to secure the economic opportunities for them for the decades beyond. And on the issue of risk with the war in Ukraine and as we saw fuel prices rise week after week after week, $2.20, $2.30. This was going to pose a great risk to Australia’s recovery. Australians, small businesses, others, regional areas in the cities, suburbs getting up off their feet having the confidence to plan and do things they’re going to do in the future. And then hit again. Because when fuel prices go up, it’s just not what happens at the bowser, everything you consume goes on a truck somewhere and it’s driven around the place. And that costs more, and that means the costs of everything go up. That’s what’s causing this. So we had to deal with it. All of the investment, all of the hard work was being put at risk by this. And so we needed a response that could deal with it. And that’s why we have put in place to deal with the here and now the cost of living package, which halved petrol taxes, fuel excise, as it’s known. I was out on Londonderry Road this morning, out in Penrith, out that way in western Sydney, down about $1.83. Now we did not anticipate it coming through that quickly and I thank the petroleum companies for moving as fast as they have. But that’s real relief. There was one family I was there with this morning that’s worth about 50 to 60 dollars a week. On just one vehicle, let alone her husband’s vehicle. Because she drives to Artarmon every day from Penrith. So that was an important thing that we had to do, but it’s temporary, it’s targeted and it’s responsible because we’re able to make the opportunity through the economy improving after the last 12 months.
Now, Labor said, we should have spent more during the pandemic. In fact, we would have spent if we’d followed them, then we would have spent $81 billion more. They wanted to spend $6 billion on paying people to have vaccines that already had. They wanted to spend, they wanted to see JobKeeper extend out further when it didn’t need to extend further because it’s time to get back to work and the jobs are open and people can come back. They would have spent an extra $81 billion, and that would have meant you couldn’t have done this. So you’ve got to know when to act and then you need to know when you got to take that off. That’s what fiscal responsibility looks like, and that’s what we’ve done. The recovery needs to be secured and so we need to continue on with the investments we’re making in lower taxes, particularly for businesses and small business. Small business now pay 25 per cent, but in this Budget, we’ve got 120 per cent tax deductions for the investments that businesses are making small or medium sized businesses in their digital technologies that they need everything from cloud computing to CRM systems and intelligent design systems to how they run their manufacturing plants. All of that. 120 per cent deduction, 120 per cent deduction for the training they’re providing to their staff, particularly their apprentices. We’re investing in providing them $15,000 each for their apprentices, we have more trade apprentices in training today than we’ve had since 1963, 220,000 of them. They could have all gone during the pandemic, but when we stepped in, they were the first jobs we saved in the pandemic because they were last on and they would have been first off and we would have lost a generation of skills. So we took that action. So we need to keep doubling down on this, there’s $3.7 billion in this Budget to ensure we’re investing in the skills reform of this country to ensure that our young people in particular, but of all ages are getting trained in the important skills they need for a modern economy. That can be in cyber training, we’ve got up to $10 billion in this Budget to totally transform what we’re doing with our cyber defences and offences in this country to keep Australians safe. But to do that, we need those cyber skills and that’s why we’re investing in those issues as part of this Budget.
And then it’s about the opportunities, the big opportunities of the future. And one of the things I’m most proud about in this Budget is the investments we’re making in regional Australia. I didn’t hear him say regional Australia once last night when he gave his presentation. Australia is more than the eight capital cities of this country. And the Australian business community understands that because they understand that 82 per cent of our goods exports, they don’t come from in our cities. As much as I love my Shire, I can’t speak of the broad, sweeping plains of wheat crops. Or the big iron ore mines. I can’t. I can talk about plenty other great things I love about my Shire and the services exports that come out of there and the great businesses that are involved in marine manufacturing and all of that. Sure. But when we’re talking about goods exports, the wealth of our country, in particular, the future wealth that we need to unlock in this country are in our regions and we have $21 billion worth of investment. So this is about game changing transform over the transformative investments in the Hunter. Now, the Hunter is an exciting place, and Michael knows this as the Liberal Candidate for Dobell. He knows that we’re building batteries in the Hunter. And he talked about it last night. It’s already happening. I was at the launch, we did the breaking ground. The investments are being made and the reason it’s happening is because they’re working with Newcastle University, the CSIRO, venture capitalists and others who can see the opportunity of a region like the Hunter. And so we need to invest more in port infrastructure and other key infrastructure there. The same is true up in Darwin, and what’s called the Middle Arm is a massive plan in the budget of over a billion dollars, which the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has championed. And that’s about unlocking the wealth of our north, combined with the dams that have been highlighted for investment. Hells Gates Dam and others up there in central and north Queensland. And, of course, the Pilbara.
Now, to pay for nuclear submarines, to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, to pay for all of the things that we know makes a stronger society, you got to dig stuff up out of the ground, you got to make stuff, you got to grow stuff and you got to sell it. And that’s what this Budget is backing in. The transformative investments in our regions that unlock the wealth that is there, the North West Minerals Province, the Copper String project will basically electrify the North West Minerals province, and Angus Taylor has been doing a terrific job working on that in his portfolio.
So that’s what our plan does. Our plan deals with the risks of now. Ensures that we secure this recovery that’s underway. One of the strongest, if not the strongest, in the advanced world. And seizes those big transformative opportunities in the future.
Now, the last thing I wanted to mention. It’s one thing to know what to do and why you want to do it, but you need to be able to know how to do it. Now, I’ve largely already covered this. And that’s why I told you about the many Budgets our government has done and I personally have been involved in because it makes a difference. And we learned this during the pandemic. There were plenty of people who told us at the start of the pandemic, they said, oh you need to do this and this and you need to do this. That was actually the easy part. The fact that we would need some income support for people who were going to lose their jobs because we were shutting down the Australian economy to save 40,000 lives, which we did. But the hard part was how? And JobKeeper was a great example of that. We knew that we had to use existing distribution channels that we knew worked to get that money to people, otherwise they would lose confidence and all would be lost. And it worked. Employers working with government, working with the finance community saved 700,000 jobs. Now, others said to us it should just be done by the government and and we should just do it out of Centrelink. Centrelink was not built for the global pandemic. The pandemic was bigger than anything the Government could deal with, I knew that we would need to bring together the whole community. Formed the National Cabinet. Got all the states lined up. Worked with the economic community, the business community, the banking community, worked with our tourism industry, worked with our primary producers, our mining companies, everybody. And we pulled this together. Because, you know, if you don’t know how to do it and if you haven’t got an economic plan to pay for it, as well motivated as you might be, the sort of ‘no child will live in poverty’ type promises are made and I heard a few of those last night. All you end up doing is more harm. You could be as well motivated as you like, but if you don’t know what to do and worse, you don’t know how to do it. Then all you end up doing is making it worse, and that’s the risk for Australians in the choice that they need to make at this election. We know how to do it. We’ve done it and we’ve got the plan to keep doing it.
We know how to run a strong economy, because we have in the worst set of economic circumstances, anyone arguably in this room has ever experienced. Particularly going all the way back to the Great Depression. But yet during that situation thirty times worse, then what Labor had to deal with during the GFC, we got outcomes that were 50 per cent better. That’s what good economic management looks like. That’s the manufacturer’s guarantee you can take from our Government when we put our commitments to you at this next election. That’s the choice when you start looking under the hood at this election and really starting to interrogate because, you know, the last couple of years, people have been focusing what they’ve had to focus on the trials and the difficulties caused by the pandemic and the floods and the fires and the floods continuing up in northern New South Wales now. But as this election comes, they will look and I will give them plenty of time to look. Anthony Albanese wants it on this Saturday before there’s time for everyone to have a good look at this character and a good look at the Labor Party. He’s the most left wing Labor Party leader we have seen some have said, even I, since Gough Whitlam. I think you can go back further. I think that’s a bit rough on Gough. I think you’d have to go back to Doc Evatt. Australians need to have a good look at this character.
I’m happy to stand up every day. I’ve got the shoulders for it, I’ve got the resilience for it. I’ve got the energy for it, as Angus said. I love this job. I love this job and I love the opportunity it gives me to support Australians in their worst of times every single day. Our plan, our Budget, is set out. Labor, after another three years, have still not got an economic plan. All this time and all we have with Labor is a tired old Opposition still with no plan. The relics of an old failed government. By contrast, you’ve seen the calibre of my team. Sussan and Angus and David and the others who are here with us today. Do you want Josh Frydenberg as Treasurer? Or Jim Chalmers, never done a Budget, not once, and if he did his first one, you know, who he’s going to be calling? His old boss, Wayne Swan. That’s not going to help. Do you want Peter Dutton as Defence Minister? Or do you want Brendan O’Connor? And you might say who? Good point. Not even Anthony Albanese wants him to be the Defence Minister, if we listen to the rumours that are going on. He’s already made the choice. He’s for Peter Dutton. Do you want Marise Payne, who’s worked with me to put in place the strongest and biggest Defence agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom since ANZUS 70 years ago? Or do you want Penny Wong? This is the time for choice, Australians, and I know those quiet Australians, they are quietly making their way to those two cars. And it’s time for them to look under the hood, and I know what they’ll find with us and I know they’ll be pleased with it. And when they look at the alternative, then I think they will make a very sound decision in Australia’s national interest. Thank you so much for your attention.
