Mr LAUNDY (Reid—Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) (15:39): The title of this MPI is 'The broken promises and failures of the government', and I thought I would talk today about the successes of the Turnbull government as a counter to that. I thought it would be a lot more compelling than the 10 minutes of attempted personal sledges and humour, which missed the mark most broadly, although there was a five-second plan at the end of it—almost. Four of the five seconds were filled with the plan. Obviously, the most important job of a federal government is to keep its citizens safe. Since coming to office, the coalition has increased counterterrorism funding by $1.5 billion. Since September 2014 there have been 13 attempted major terrorism attacks, 74 people have been charged as a result of 31 counterterrorism operations, and 40 people have been convicted of terrorism offences. The coalition has invested more than $45 million over the past four years in programs to counter radicalisation and to remove online terrorist propaganda, more than triple that of the previous Labor government. We are talking about introducing laws where we can pull young, misguided children off planes. I have sat with the families of those affected when those laws weren't in place, and they have just been so disappointed they weren't, because they will never see their sons again. What did we have under Labor in counterterrorism? It was a budget-cutting item. They cut 700 staff and $735 million from Customs over their six years. There was embarrassment for the member for Blaxland, who was the minister at the time, when the biggest ever catch of amphetamines was found in Regents Park in his electorate under his watch. Labor cut staff from Australia's federal law enforcement and border protection agencies, and under Labor we had record low investment in security of Australian citizens. The second most important job of the federal government is to protect our borders. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, each time he stands at this box, talks about the fact that the boats have stopped, and they are still stopped. Kids are out of detention. Seventeen detention centres are closed. There have been citizenship changes and 457 visa changes to protect the jobs of Australians. Then you get to the economy, my favourite topic, which was completely neglected by the Leader of the Opposition. There were personal tax cuts delivered, and 500,000 middle income earners benefited from them. Mr Hill: What are you doing with your tax cut? Mr LAUNDY: There have been company tax cuts delivered that drive investment, profitability and employment. The member asked: what are we doing with our tax cuts? What are businesses doing with their tax cuts? My family, I would suggest, are doing what every business in this country is doing: reinvesting in their business, growing their business and employing more Australians. I will get to the results of it at the end. Thank you for asking. You have free trade agreements. The Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources stood at the dispatch box today. There is a 39 per cent increase in the agricultural sector over the past five years. We have ChAFTA, the Japan-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the Korean free trade agreement and updating of the Singapore free trade agreement, and you have results like this: chilled and frozen beef exports were $670 million in calendar year 2016, up fourfold from 2012—300 per cent. Sheepmeat exports were $240 million in calendar year 2016, more than double—100 per cent above—those of four years ago. Grape exports were $102 million, a sixfold increase. These are the sorts of results we are having at the back end: businesses growing their profitability and yet again employing more people. Ms Flint: Employing more Australians. Mr LAUNDY: Employing more Australians, as the member for Boothby knows in her electorate. Then you have the ABCC—the Australian Building and Construction Commission—and the registered organisation and corrupting benefits legislation, making sure that the rule of law is in Australian workplaces and that unions operate with the same responsibility as company directors have and that, if payments are made to union officials, there is vision and transparency. Why? Because members pay their fees in good faith. They expect that their union leadership is representing them in good faith. If there are payments being received and they don't know about them, and they are going to outside organisations like GetUp! that are then campaigning against coalmines and coal workers' jobs, I don't think that is in good faith. What are the Turnbull government doing for small business? There are tax cuts, as I've mentioned, and the instant asset write-off. We're working on competition reform. Again, those opposite are not in favour of competition reform. Why? Because it doesn't suit big business. And what's the relationship? It's big business and big unions in bed together, robbing low-paid workers. They do it through EBAs, and they're trying to do it through competition reform. We've lifted Labor's frozen Medicare rebate. There is defence spending reform—again, a favourite budget item of those opposite through the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years. They cut it by 10 per cent, or $5.5 billion. It got to the lowest amount since 1938. We had not one ship built in the six years on their watch. We have announced a massive rollout, $200 billion worth, and there will be jobs galore in states like South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, as the supply chains that we need through the procurement lever that we use in government are backfilled, engaging with businesses from SMEs to large businesses. Primes are motivated to engage with Australian SMEs. Why? Again, it's because of profitability increases. Growth comes, and then more jobs. There is $75 billion, as announced in the budget, on infrastructure spending; the country needs it. There are child care reforms starting next July. There is education reform, with Gonski 2.0. Again, you heard it in question time: there were 27 different agreements in the lead-up to the last election, with Labor running around the country offering different people different deals. Why? So they could have a political win. There was no structure, no thought in it, other than political expediency. That has been cleaned up by the minister for education. Those opposite came up with the idea—their idea; I give them full credit for it—of the NDIS, and there was bipartisan support. It is hard to budget what these things will cost in the longer term. These things grow. Forecasts are more inaccurate the longer they go. There have been funding shortfalls that have come on our watch. But, in our commitment to that initiative, we have found ways that we can fix those funding shortfalls. Just today, the Turnbull government delivered the latest addition to No Jab, No Pay—there are 210,000 kids in stage 1 of this—to insist that parents vaccinate their kids for the safety of their children and the other children that they interact with, be it at child care or at school. Media reforms were announced, passing late last night—long-needed reforms of laws that came into effect before there was the internet, and here they are. What do you get at the end of all that? You get the economic statistics that the Treasurer announced today. You are talking about 800,000 jobs that have been created in the last five years—250,000 in the last 12 months. You are talking about 11 months of continuous job growth. And, of those 250,000 jobs, 80 per cent are full-time, arresting the trend that has unfolded historically, driven through the GFC, of the casualisation and underemployment problem in this country. You've got— Ms Flint: Greater business confidence. Mr LAUNDY: Exactly! Why have you got that? In 11 of the last 13 months, there has been an increase in full-time jobs, the greatest stretch we have had in that statistic in the past 23 years. Why have you got it? Because you've got a government that believes in business and its right to profit so that it can employ more people and so jobs will grow. What do you have opposite? You have a tax-and-spend mentality. We've seen it before. It doesn't work. For the Leader of the Opposition to come in here and attempt personal sledges and humour, and completely ignore the economy is the latest example of how out of touch he is.