Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Cabinet) Share this | Hansard source

When I think about trust in politics, I think about governments doing exactly what they said they would do when they sought election. When I think about trust in relation to the last election, I'm reminded about Prime Minister Morrison specifically raising the issue of trust on the day that he visited the Governor-General and called the election. In fact, as reported in The Canberra Times:

Mr Morrison declared the election to be about "trust" and the economic record of the Liberals and Nationals in power in contrast to the higher taxes proposed by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

I specifically reviewed the interview transcript today, and I quote the Prime Minister:

… who do you trust to deliver that strong economy which your essential services rely on?

In relation to trust, we can use this opportunity to outline exactly what this government's priorities are and how we're delivering exactly on what we took to the Australian people. It's very interesting that the honourable member referenced today's successful repeal of Labor's medevac law in an argument against trust. This was one of the issues that this government took to the election. This is one of those pieces of legislation that we said we would repeal, and today that repeal has occurred in the Senate. That is how we deliver on trust to the Australian people—by saying what we're going to do and delivering upon that.

This government's priority is to build an even stronger economy. It's about building resilience and rewarding aspiration. It's about lower taxes so Australians can keep more of what they earn. It's about reducing the costs to businesses. It's about equipping Australians with the skills that they need and making sure that we create the employees that Australian businesses need. It's about expanding our trade. It's about building infrastructure. It's about keeping the budget strong. The reason why these priorities are important is that this is exactly what we said to the Australian people we would do, and we're delivering upon that. The government has returned the budget to surplus. The budget, for the first time in 11 years, is in balance. Again, we are delivering upon the commitment that we made to the Australian people, unlike Labor, who hadn't delivered a surplus since 1989.

One of the key things we said at the election was that we would continue to build on our record of working with businesses to create jobs in our economy. In 2019 alone, to October, 202,700 new jobs have been added to the Australian economy, with 251,800 jobs added over the past year. Since 2013, more than 1.4 million more Australians are in jobs, and 55 per cent of those jobs have been full time. That's how we're developing trust in democracy—by doing exactly what we said we would do.

One of the first things that we did—and it was not easy to pass through this House and the Senate with the usual political games that you would expect from those opposite—was deliver tax reform and deliver a further $158 billion of tax relief, building on our already legislated Personal Income Tax Plan. It was the biggest simplification of the personal income tax system since the early 1990s, abolishing an entire tax bracket and making income tax lower, fairer and simpler. We're lowering the 32.5 per cent rate to 30 per cent in 2024-25, ensuring a projected 94 per cent of taxpayers will face a marginal tax rate of no more than 30 per cent. We said we would do it, and we've done it, and we will continue to do the things we said we would do.

We told the Australian people that we would take action in relation to the cost of electricity. They put their trust in this government to take that action. ABS data shows that national electricity prices have dropped around three per cent since December.

We said that we would take action in relation to Australia's emissions, and we've done that. In the year to June 2019, economy-wide emissions fell 0.1 per cent, or 400,000 tonnes to 532 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. We said we'd do it, and we are doing it. Emissions are now lower than when the coalition came to government and have declined each year since 2016-17.

We said we would invest in infrastructure. We said we would build on our $100 billion infrastructure investments and that we would keep the economy strong so that we can deliver the essential services Australians rely on. More recently, we announced a bring forward of $3.8 billion of infrastructure investment to help strengthen the economy, to drive jobs and to get people home sooner. That's how we develop trust in our democracy—by doing what we said we would do and by delivering.

Through our strong budget management, we've also been able to support our farmers and drought-affected communities when they need us the most. Since the last election, we have announced over $1 billion of additional support. We've made changes to the farm household allowance to make it easier to apply for and more accessible, including the introduction of a new special drought relief payment for farmers and graziers that have exhausted their four years of farm household allowance.

At the last election we said to the Australian people that a strong economy is central to everything; only with a strong economy can we deliver on the essential services that Australians rely on. They put their trust in us and, because we can manage the economy, we were able to deliver this additional support for farmers and those drought-affected communities.

We're backing our farmers with the establishment of the $5 billion Future Drought Fund. It will improve the resilience of rural and regional communities. Importantly, we said that we would pass legislation to protect farmers from activists who trespass on their land. We said that we would protect farmers from activists that seek to trespass and to get in the way of hardworking, honest Australians that are working on the land and in farms. That legislation was passed. We're going to get a lecture from the Greens, no doubt, in relation to trust in our democracy, from a party that didn't support the mandate that this government had in order to pass that legislation in this House. They're going to talk about a whole range of other issues about trust, but they fail to maintain the trust that the people expect of governments and to build that trust by allowing governments to get on with it and do what they said they would. They voted against that. If the Australian government took to the people a commitment to protect Australian farmers from activists, the Australian people's trust in our democracy will be strengthened when the government can get on with it and deliver exactly what they said they would do.

This is a government that is delivering record school funding. This is a government that's delivering record health funding. This is a government that has, this year, made 334 new and extended PBS listings, providing new treatment options for many conditions, including cystic fibrosis, asthma, skin cancer, leukaemia and lung cancer, amongst many more. That is benefitting hundreds of thousands of Australians who now have access to life-saving and improved treatment options. More than half a million Australians are accessing cheaper medicines as a result of mandated price reductions on 15 common medicines sold as 175 medicine brands, saving Australians $390 million a year. That's how we develop trust in our democracy—delivering for Australians in very practical ways that make their lives easier, by putting more money in their pockets and delivering on the concerns that they have.

I'm one who likes to talk up our democracy. We live in a democracy that we should be very proud of. When a government takes a commitment to the Australian people to make practical and real improvements in the lives of hardworking and aspirational Australians, delivering on those commitments strengthens the trust that Australians have in our democracy. Deputy Speaker, you're going to hear a lot from people who are going to talk down our system of democracy. I'm very proud and humbled to be a member of this parliament. I take my role as representing not only my constituency of Tangney but also the people of Western Australia and the people of Australia, in my role as an assistant minister to the Prime Minister, very seriously, as I know all members of this place do. We have a responsibility as members of parliament to talk up the strength of our democracy. We live in one of the finest democracies in the world. It is a democracy that is strengthened when governments have the ability to deliver on exactly what they said they would deliver when they took their positions to an election and were re-elected as a result.

See this speech in context