Mr FALINSKI (Mackellar) (10:24): I listened very carefully to the shadow Treasurer, as I always do, because he often has much to say of great interest and great insight. I was, however, amazed to hear him talk about rorts, waste and excessive debt and to blame this government. He says that we have nothing to show for the trillion dollars in debt that we are projected to reach. Well, there are some things that we need to keep in mind. The first is that, at the end of this, Australia will have one of the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios of any OECD nation on record. The other thing to keep in mind in relation to the debt that was racked up prior to COVID-19, at the end of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, is that at no point did the Labor Party assist us in reducing that debt. In fact, we put up budget measures to ensure that the budget got back into surplus as soon as possible, and the Labor Party in the Senate, with the Independents, with the crossbench, not only rejected those efforts but voted them down. In other words, for the Labor Party to come in here now and claim that they're worried about debt is, well, kind of interesting. And for them to say that we didn't do anything about it, given that they actively assisted and were planning with the crossbench, with the fake Independents that we see all across Australia these days, I think belies the fact that they cry crocodile tears when it comes to debt and deficit. They were the ones that put all the programs in place that led to the debt that we had. We balanced the budget, and then the coronavirus, a global pandemic, came to blow that surplus that we would have enjoyed in 2020 out of the water. When the shadow Treasurer says, 'What did we get for it?' look around the world and what you see is that, in health terms, Australia's outcomes are some of the best—in fact, the best—in the world. We have the lowest number of deaths and the highest number of vaccinations. In economic terms, we have the lowest level of unemployment, the highest level of growth and the lowest level of public debt, both nominally and as a ratio of GDP. Our growth in debt is some of the lowest in the world. The only country that beats us is the Chinese republic, who, last year, in 2021, said that they had one death from COVID. So it may be—and I'm not suggesting that this is the case—that some of their data collection techniques need updating. I don't think, out of 1.4 billion people, it is probable that only one person died from COVID in China last year. So, when the shadow Treasurer says, 'We have all this debt and we have all this spending, and it's about rorts and waste,' I say to him in return: 'Well, what is your plan to reduce debt? What is your plan to reduce spending? Or are you, in fact, not interested in reducing spending and in reducing debt but, rather, in increasing taxes?' What we have got from this record level of support are the best health outcomes and the best economic outcomes in the world. Indeed, the shadow Treasurer said the Morrison Liberal government's success or failure should be judged on employment figures. As we approach the end of this pandemic after a long two-year journey, we are, in fact, in a position where our unemployment numbers are lower than they were in the beginning. So, not using my test, not using the test of the Treasurer, the Prime Minister or anyone on this side of the House but using the test of the shadow Treasurer himself, what we have got from this spending and from this debt is an unmitigated success. It is not only an unmitigated success by his standards; it's an unmitigated success by the standards of literally every other nation in the world. But the Labor Party can't be proud of this country; the Labor Party can't be proud of Australians. They always have to be dragging us down. They always have to be bemoaning and belittling our nation and its people. They can't ever once say to the Australian people: 'You know what, we might get a lot wrong, but we got this one right. You know what, we may not be a perfect nation and we may not be a perfect people, but our mission is a perfect one.' At the end of this pandemic, we have actually produced economic and health outcomes that are the envy of the world. They are literally the envy of every other single nation in the world, except for those on the Left. On the Left, our success is something to be hated and reviled, because they can't stand it. They can't stand it when we do well, because their whole world view is that this nation is a nation built on awfulness and horribleness, and any success is therefore not allowed to occur. When I look at these bills, all I see is the great success of this nation—and not just this government, not just this parliament, but parliaments throughout this country. Some have got it more right than others. But our federation, during this process, during one of the most testing crises that I hope I ever face in public life, actually adapted, was resilient. Hundreds of thousands of Australians are alive today who would not have been if not for the leadership of this government, this parliament and parliaments throughout the country. Let us not forget that, when this pandemic first started, a United Kingdom college that has expertise in this area estimated that 280,000 Australians would die. Norman Swan variously claimed that over 100,000 Australians would die. Thank God they were wrong. They were wrong by more than 97½ per cent, which, as the member for Fenner can tell you, is two standard deviations, and that's a pretty rare occurrence. So I'm glad that the experts were wrong on that over and over again. But that didn't just happen; that happened because of decisions that were made here. The money wasn't wasted. The money was used wisely to protect lives and livelihoods. And now we move to the next stage of this pandemic. To quote Churchill, this may not be the end, but it is certainly the beginning of the end. We now need to start thinking about how this nation can recover, can build better, can build on our success, can take advantage of how well we have managed this pandemic. Has it been perfect? No, but I tell you what, I wasn't Michelle Ananda-Rajah, the Labor candidate for Higgins, going on Q&A and claiming that AstraZeneca would lead to the deaths of young Australians. I wasn't Michelle Ananda-Rajah, agreeing with the Chief Health Officer of Queensland—who is now the Governor of Queensland—that 18-year-olds would die if they took AstraZeneca. I wasn't Michelle Ananda-Rajah or the Chief Health Officer of Queensland, scaring Australians into not taking a vaccine that would save lives and get us back to our normal lives quicker. And I wasn't the political party that endorsed that person for a seat in parliament. I think it says a lot about the quality control on the other side that they would allow someone who had made such outrageous comments to carry their banner into an election. While we are talking about openness and transparency, we have, once again, a second reading amendment. Let's be clear what the Labor Party, what the Left, is doing with this. There's a website—it's a dishonourable website, a website full of misinformation—that claims that members on this side of the House have voted in favour of slavery. It is an outrageous, despicable website. In any civilised society it would be shut down. Fortunately, we live in a society where we don't cancel free speech, where we allow people to put up outrageous comments so that we can have a free and open discussion of thought and belief. But when an organisation does this, and it has not only the acquiescence but the encouragement of those opposite—who continue to move these second reading amendments so that they can then claim on this dishonourable website that members on this side voted against something that they very much voted in favour of—it just leads you to wonder where our politics lie today. Are we driven by policies? Are we driven by driving the best outcomes for the people of Australia, or are we driven by the hordes on Twitter? Are we driven by the personal politics of destruction and abuse, or do we wish to deliver politics that deliver a higher sense of policy—where debate matters, where ideas drive our decisions? Or do we prefer to pull stunts like second reading amendment speeches that lower us to the lowest common denominator, that only spread misinformation, that allow people to be characterised as believing the polar opposite of what they have, in some cases, stood for all their lives or argued against all their lives? Is that the sort of nation we want to live in? I ask those opposite, who are clearly playing the game with them: is that the kind of politics that they believe this nation deserves? Do they believe that we should be held to a higher standard, that our politics should be driven by ideas and high ideals, or do they believe in silly, undergraduate websites driven by foundations that hide behind a whole bunch of front companies? Because that's the undergraduate nature that our politics is coming to. I know the shadow Treasurer is an honourable person, yet he moves these second reading amendments because this aberrant behaviour has basically been normalised. I ask those opposite to stand up against the crowd, the online crowd, that drives them to these stupid positions. Australians are not fools. Australians can see. Australians will know, once the smoke clears, that we have had the best outcomes, in both health and economic terms, from this pandemic. They can see around the world and they know that, while things have not been perfect, others have suffered far greater than we have. They know all these things, and they know that what they read online, when they read Twitter and they see the personal abuse, is the path to destruction. When those opposite move these second reading amendments so that a bunch of people—who may have graduated from university, but their attitudes didn't—can continue to assert that those on this side of the House believe in things that they've never said, have never believed in, and have voted for things that were never available for them to vote on, then I ask you: is that really what you want to do? As Shylock said: 'If we'd be like you in all, then why not we be like you in this? I will better the instruction.' If you keep pushing our politics down this path, all you end up with at the end of the day is two sides being dragged down into a bottomless pit of personal abuse. Well, I'm not going to be dragged into that pit. I encourage those opposite who know better not to also be dragged down into that personal pit. I know that you're under pressure from the Greens. I know that you're under pressure from the far Left in many of your seats—not you, Deputy Speaker. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Rob Mitchell ): No, not through the chair! Mr FALINSKI: No-one would put you under pressure. I know all of this is happening. I know that there is that temptation to play their silly games. Dr Leigh interjecting— Mr FALINSKI: The member for Fenner raises the Voices of Mackellar. I wasn't going to. Thank you, Member for Fenner. I wish he'd done it five minutes ago. I make the point that these front groups just keep sprouting up with more and more names, hiding their money, hiding their donations, hiding what they really believe in, refusing to answer questions—and I know that you face the same thing from the Greens. Let us come together to create a better politics, just as we created the world's best outcomes from the pandemic.