Senator IAN MACDONALD (Queensland) (17:53): It's a pleasure to join this debate, particularly after that very fine speech by my colleague Senator Hume. I must say that it was one of the best, most accurate and most perceptive speeches that I've heard for some time—certainly, that I've heard in this debate while I've been in the chamber. Senate Hume has quite rightly had a serious look at this proposed matter of public importance—which, I must say, most people don't ever look terribly closely at. It is proposed by the Labor Party that the matter of public importance is: The Turnbull Government's relentless negativity and inability to focus on the issues Australians care about. It's a proposed matter that is trite, inaccurate and dishonest—but, coming from the Labor Party, what else would you expect? That really describes the Labor Party: trite, inaccurate and dishonest. As Senator Hume so nicely pointed out, the negativity one sees in this Parliament House comes only from the opposition benches. I challenge anyone to say when they've ever heard the Labor Party say a positive thing. At question time, in speeches, it's always, 'Nag, nag, nag; debate, debate, debate.' Contrary, antagonistic—it's anything but positivity. The positivity in this chamber comes from the government. Senator Hume has so clearly set out examples of the positive actions of this government and the negativity of the Labor Party and their mates in the Greens political party. I've said what a fine speech it was from Senator Hume, but she was wrong in one case. She accuses the Labor Party of wanting to bring back death taxes. I see some of the Labor Party's backers, the unions, are calling for that, but that is the Labor Party yet again adopting the Greens political party's policy. The Greens unashamedly want death taxes back. It seems now the Labor Party are, as usual, dancing to the Greens' tune, because the Greens give them preferences. The Greens run with their front, GetUp!, only to keep the Labor Party in power. Senator Siewert: Dream on! Senator IAN MACDONALD: Sorry, Senator Siewert's laughing about that. Do you say that's inaccurate? In my state of Queensland the Greens exist just to keep the Labor Party in power. In Senator Whish-Wilson's state of Tasmania they went even further than that; they joined in coalition government with them until the people of Tasmania got a bit sick of the Greens and the Labor Party and booted them all out. The Greens were lucky to win one seat at the last election in Tasmania. Contrary to the import of this matter of public importance, the government is full of positivity and good things for the Australian people, like over a million jobs that have been created by coalition governments in less than five years. That's not bad; that's pretty positive. How could the Labor Party even suggest that was negative? There are 770,000 new jobs that have been created since September 2015, more than half of which are full-time. These are jobs that people didn't have under the Labor Party. Almost 340,000 new jobs were created in just the last 12 months. There has been record jobs growth. There have been business tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses, a very positive initiative of the Turnbull government. Strengthening small to medium-sized businesses means more jobs for our fellow Australians. Childcare reforms by the Turnbull government are benefiting a million families. Those new initiatives started in July, meaning more families are able to access affordable and reliable child care, enabling the parents to go to work. How positive is that? Where is the negativity that this particular motion seems to suggest? We've turned the corner on energy prices. A lot of work has been done by Mr Frydenberg, the energy minister, in getting together this national energy policy, and it's a pity the Labor Party are so negative that apparently they want to keep the electricity prices high. I understand why that happens in Queensland. The electricity company in Queensland that generates and sells the power in Queensland—and gouges businesses and residents alike—is owned by the Queensland government. It makes huge profits, which the electricity company then just channels into the Queensland Labor government, a government that's bereft of any financial expertise. They try to stay afloat by gouging money out of electricity consumers through their wholly owned electricity company, so I can understand why Labor's opposed to the Turnbull government's initiatives to keep electricity affordable and reliable. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is yet another in a long list of free trade agreements that the Turnbull government has been able to achieve. They're not just international treaties that someone has signed and that's it; they actually mean something. I will just briefly mention two aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that are so appealing to me, and they are beef and sugar, which are major exports from up in North Queensland, where I come from. Regrettably, Senator Watt wouldn't know where that is. He knocked off the only Labor senator in North Queensland, and, of course, the Labor Party now have no senators north of Brisbane. Senator Watt got rid of the one they had, and I understand he's going to put in one of his Brisbane staffers and pretend they're the northern senator. Senator Sterle interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Williams ): Order on my left, Senator Sterle! Senator IAN MACDONALD: That TPP is great news for the beef and sugar industries, and the benefits of that are just magnificent. Unfortunately, time doesn't permit me to go through all the positives of the Turnbull government, which show that this proposal by the Labor Party in this matter of public importance is just as I said it was originally: very trite, very inaccurate and very dishonest, just like the party that proposed it.