Senator McDONALD (Queensland) (17:15): As I rise today, I'm reminded of a verse in the Bible, which translates as, 'There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.' This is a criticism of those who won't allow themselves to accept the uncomfortable reality placed right in front of them. The Bible also says that you shouldn't point out the splinter in your friend's eye when you have a plank in your own. Both these parables can be applied to the Australian Labor Party, a party that loves to criticise the coalition's economic credentials despite its own woeful record of tax-and-spend disasters. The Labor Party likes to paint itself as the arbiter of what constitutes good economic management, but their economic record reads like a bad steward's report of a horse race: stumbled at the start, failed to respond, rider told to use more vigour, unable to clear running, pulled up lame and an inquiry into performance— A government senator: Overuse of the whip! Senator McDONALD: Overuse of the whip! In contrast, the coalition government has proven itself to be the Winx of world economic management. Just on Wednesday this week, The Australian reported that the Reserve Bank forecast the economy will return to its pre-pandemic size by the middle of this year, six months earlier than expected. RBA Governor Philip Lowe was quoted as saying that the economic recovery was well underway and had been stronger than was earlier expected. The central bank also found that unemployment would fall to 5.5 per cent by the end of 2022, better than the expected six per cent it forecast in December. If we look back, the only reason the Morrison government could respond so effectively to COVID was the coalition's commendable economic management leading up to it. In 2019 the unemployment rate was 5.1 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent when Labor left office. Workforce participation was at a record high and welfare dependency was at its lowest level in 30 years. But back to today: Australia's economic outlook is more favourable than those of almost all of the world's major advanced economies and we are forecast to grow faster than those advanced economies, while our AAA credit rating has been affirmed by all three major ratings agencies. The job vacancy rate in regional Australia means that businesses, the small businesses that provide over 60 per cent of jobs, are desperate to fill jobs. Senator Ayres suggested that there are not well-paid jobs available, particularly for the young. This is just wrong. There are over 300 apprenticeship jobs available in Mount Isa today. There are jobs available all over regional Queensland, and yet we continue to hear this bizarre story that there are no jobs available to young people. The Labor Party saying something which is untrue over and over again will not make it correct, and so I seek to introduce a bit of reality to Labor. I'm not sure how many people opposite have ever run a business—have ever actually employed somebody or have ever worried about what the economy is doing and how they maintain their commitment to their staff. I can assure you: every employer I know worries about that more than about themselves. How many of those opposite have just sat at the teat of someone else's hardworking tax dollar? The states—and, in particular, I talk about Queensland—have shut down airline jobs and shut down tourism jobs. They have done it over and over again, and I can tell you that the small-business owners who are employing those people are not sleeping at night. They're wondering how to pay their mortgages and they're wondering why Palaszczuk doesn't give a damn about them, their families or their futures. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Carol Brown ): Senator, I would ask you to use the appropriate title for the Premier of Queensland. Senator McDONALD: Thank you for that correction. They wonder why the Premier of Queensland doesn't give a damn about their future, their families, their mortgages or their employees. I also need to correct Senator Gallacher, who is well out of touch. He believes that nobody is monitoring business payments. I can tell him that Single Touch Payroll was introduced some time ago, and I can give him a tutorial in other business practices that he's obviously not aware of in this modern world. Although Senator Gallacher is often a great advocate for regional South Australia, I'm afraid he has no idea of what's happening with the businesses there. Business confidence is now above prepandemic levels according to two bank run surveys. All I can say is that the Australian people and businesses must be hugely relieved that the coalition has held the country's financial reins during this shock. In fact, Australians would be thanking their lucky stars that Labor hasn't had a chance to get its hands on the Treasury for some time. Studies show that, without the groundbreaking JobKeeper subsidy, unemployment would have skyrocketed to 12 per cent and stayed there until at least 2022. The Labor Party loves to paint the coalition as holding back wage growth, but, if we look at the facts, Labor's record on wages was a cut to the real minimum wage in three out of six years, whereas it has grown every year under the coalition. Average earnings adjusted for hours as measured in the National Accounts increased 3.3 per cent through the year to the December quarter, above the 10-year average of around 2.3 per cent, and that compares to just 1.3 per cent in the June quarter of 2013. Even though we are facing a once-in-a-century pandemic, the coalition's strong economic management resulted in solid household income growth of 3.4 per cent in the September quarter and 8.1 per cent compared to a year ago. The key to lifting wages is lifting productivity growth, and that's why we are focused on lowering taxes, investing in infrastructure, equipping our workers with better skills and improving our industrial relations framework. In my home region of northern Australia, the Morrison government has injected more billions of dollars in assistance, infrastructure and support, whereas the state government has been one of the lowest-spending state governments across the land. In the most recent budget, the north received the following allocations, just to name a few: $655 million in additional road infrastructure across the north; $3 million for the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority to accelerate water infrastructure planning and agricultural opportunities; $17 million for a regional tourism recovery package to help the industry bounce back from COVID; more than $3 billion in defence funding for facilities in northern Australia; and $1 billion allocated to flow through local councils. So I have to thank the Labor Party. I have to thank them for once again giving us an opportunity to highlight the positive outlook Australians have been given thanks to a coalition government.