Mr COULTON (Parkes—Minister for Regional Services, Decentralisation and Local Government and Assistant Trade and Investment Minister) (15:29): If members opposite are ever wondering why they're sitting on that side of the chamber and not this side, the contribution in the last 10 minutes by the Leader of the Opposition is a pretty good example of that. If that contribution were played on SBS, there would need to be someone there with a grey beard explaining to the wider Australian public what it all meant. He was critical of the Prime Minister's support for quiet Australians. Quiet Australians are the people out there in Australia. They're not the union officials. They're not in the Canberra inner circle that we're seeing here. If the Labor Party wonder why they are sitting there after 18 May, it's because they didn't speak to the quiet Australians. They didn't have the conversations that I was having with people in Bourke, in Moree and in every other part of Australia. People were coming up to me, whose lifelong family connections to the Labor Party are well known, and were terrified of the Labor Party's policies. They were coming to me and telling me that they didn't understand how the Labor Party had lost its way. That great party that was formed in regional Australia on the sweat of shearers and was born to represent the working class of Australia has lost its way and now has no connection with those people. It's the people on this side that represent the areas in the bush. They are representing those people, because those people have lost complete faith in the Labor Party. The people on this side are all people with real life experience. None of these people on this side, I believe, got here by being union officials. Hands up if you were a union official before you came into this place. I'm sorry, we're not representatives like you are over there. So the Australians looked to the coalition, and they liked what they saw. They wanted to have someone to represent them that kept taxes low. They wanted someone that could balance the budget. They wanted someone that could build infrastructure for the future. They wanted someone that could manage a strong economy and create jobs. They wanted some who could balance the budget. This year, the budget has returned to balance for the first time in 11 years. I have been around here for a while. Opposition members interjecting— Mr COULTON: You might want to listen there up in the backbench, because I was sitting over there for six years while I saw the great largesse of the Howard government fritted away on school halls that wouldn't fit any students. Mr Perrett: You voted for it! Mr COULTON: We may have voted for it, but we did not implement it. It was the worst implemented scheme that we have ever seen in the history of the Commonwealth. By contrast, Labor, in that time, racked up six record deficits totalling $240 billion. They haven't delivered a surplus since that great iconic leader—the well-respected and late Prime Minister Robert Hawke. Dr Freelander: And union official! Mr COULTON: I'm glad the member for Macarthur is paying attention. I was worried that he might not have been listening. I thought he might have nodded off there for a while. I'm pleased he's still here. We have delivered a further $158 billion of tax relief going into the pockets of everyday Australians through their personal tax plan. It's the biggest simplification of income tax systems in the 1990s, abolishing an entire tax bracket and making income tax lower. The corporate tax plan reduces the burden on SMEs—small businesses, the backbone of Australia. Do you know how the Labor Party thinks you get a small business? Mrs Marino: You get a big business. Mr COULTON: You get a big business and vote for Labor, and that's how you get a small business. We saw plenty of that after 2007, though, didn't we? Plenty of big businesses became small businesses. We support small businesses. They are the greatest employers in Australia. We have created more than 1.4 million jobs since September 2013, and more than 55 per cent of these have been full-time jobs. Over 837 of these jobs have been for women. Labor's high-tax plan for Australia would have decimated the economy and cost jobs. The Australian people knew that. That's why they kept the ALP over there. That's what they kept saying to me. They didn't want to not vote for the Labor Party; they just could not vote for them. They had lost confidence. On this side we have been increasing trade. One of the great privileges I've had in the 12 years I've been in this place has been— Mr Perrett interjecting— Mr COULTON: I actually had an increased margin, member for Moreton. Mr Perrett: Didn't your primary vote go down? You forget that. Mr COULTON: I got over the line; that's the main thing! We all know that. I'm here and, while I'm here, I've been expanding Australia's interests overseas through trade, supporting Australia through trade agreements that have been absolutely life-changing for our exporting industries. They are agreements like the TPP-11, which is for 11 countries around the Pacific. Just recently I have been involved in the implementation and the support that came through this House for the Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Peru free trade agreements. Seventy per cent of our exports now are through free trade agreements—agreements that give our exporters a benefit over our competitors. Money is going into everyday Australians' pockets. Our exports continue to grow and are expected to reach a record $470 billion in 2018-19, up from $307 billion six years ago. We've posted for the 2018-19 financial year a record yearly trade surplus of $49.89 billion, which is more than three times larger than the previous record. Australia now has a current account surplus for the first time since 1975. But we do have a plan for the future—a plan for Australians, as someone who proudly looks after regional Australia; a plan for Australians who live in the regions. We are decentralising government. We are putting the people who serve communities in those communities. It doesn't mean we're moving whole departments. Members in the Canberra area don't need to be in a state of high anxiety. To have someone who works for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority living in Menindee? You can't tell me that that's not a good idea. People that are working for the infrastructure department and building the Inland Rail living in Moree? Those are jobs right across regional Australia. Commonwealth employees will be working with the communities and the people that they are serving. We have some massive infrastructure projects in our $100 billion pipeline. The Inland Rail, a project that's close to my heart, a project the member opposite would have heard about 12 years ago listening to my first speech here, where I mentioned my support for the Inland Rail. If you go out into western New South Wales now, you will find hundreds of people now laying rails, earthworks—all the work associated with Inland Rail. It is creating not only 16,000 jobs through construction but an opportunity to build a corridor of commerce right through western New South Wales, into Victoria and up into Queensland, giving an opportunity for those communities to have connection not only to Melbourne and Brisbane. Every capital city in Australia, for the first time in the history of this country, will be connected by a standard-gauge rail. It is taking trucks off the road, saving on greenhouse gases and making it safer on our highways. This is a transformational project. It's important that we represent and we support all aspects such as more doctors to the bush. We're developing and implementing a strategy for a remedy so that more medical professionals will be encouraged to go work in regional areas and to find out that working there is an advantage. It is a positive prospect for your future; it is not a second-class opportunity. We will continue to implement those policies. Next week I have the privilege of turning the first sod on the first of the projects for the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network, a $74 million project that will train end to end medical professionals in regional areas so that they will service regional areas. This government is delivering. It does support all Australians and will continue to do so into the future. (Time expired)