Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:53): You'll actually keep. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): I'm just going to stop all the interjections and say you have the right to be heard in silence. Mr McCORMACK: I hadn't even started and he was interjecting. Taree, Bathurst, Orange, Cranbourne, Tamworth, Kalgoorlie, Shepparton—what do they have in common? They are all around a population of 40,000. That is the number of people that, when in government, the coalition saved through our policies and our spending initiatives during the worst of COVID global pandemic—40,000 people. I hear the Treasurer often ask: what does Australia have to show for all the spending by the coalition government? I'll tell you what it has to show? It is people's lives. It was 700,000 livelihoods, the jobs of Australians that were at risk. I was in the meetings at the outbreak of COVID-19. On 1 March I can remember James Kwan, a tourism operator in Perth, had passed away. He was the first of many thousands of Australians who lost their lives. We mourn for him now as we mourned for his family then. We put in place measures, through JobKeeper and all the other provisions, to make sure that people's lives and livelihoods were protected and preserved. That's what we did, and 40,000 lives have been protected. The Treasurer, the member for Hawke and others on that side ask: what did your spending provide? Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: 'Nothing,' I hear from the member for McEwen! That's 40,000 lives. That's what it was. We don't apologise for the fact that we saved people's lives. Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: Stop pointing at me and yelling at me. Deputy Speaker, I ask you to pull him into order. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr McCORMACK: Forty thousand lives. That's what we saved. Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me, Member for McEwen. Dial it down, Member for Riverina. I'd like you to take a breath and calm this down for a moment. Mr McCORMACK: The Sydney Morning Herald in its editorial on 29 July 2022 said that the Treasurer should end his 'sob story' and outline his policies. I couldn't agree more. It continued: While Chalmers'— the member for Rankin— economic statement drips with rhetorical empathy for battlers, it fails to explain how he plans to reconcile these conflicting priorities. Of course, the Sydney Morning Herald is right. It was not just the Sydney Morning Herald, other publications and other media asking that question and demanding an answer; ordinary everyday Australians were doing the same. Indeed, as we know, today is another tough day for the 3½ million families who have a mortgage and are struggling with the cost of living. They are looking to the government for answers, and what we're getting is the blame game. What we're getting is, 'It's all the fault of those opposite.' When we were in government we made sure that we navigated this nation's workers, this nation's battlers and this nation's families through drought, fires, floods and the worst global pandemic in 100 years. And what have we got to show for it? Forty thousand people are alive today because of the policies that we put in place. Some 700,000 jobs were saved because of the economic policies that we enacted, that we put in place. I'm proud of that record, and I know those on this side are proud too, because the job of the government is to protect Australians. The job of the government in Australia is to look after the interests of families, workers, battlers and everybody who calls this country home. We know that during our government more than 1.2 million jobs were created since the pandemic. There are 11½ million Australians benefitting from tax relief. That was the policy that we put in place. There were 220,000 trade apprentices. I appreciate that the government are going to have a skills and jobs summit. Good on them. I hope it's successful. I truly do. But we had 220,000 trade apprentices, a record high. There were more than 5,200 grants worth $2.7 billion to support manufacturing businesses. We want more business to be done here in Australia. We want more products built in Australia. Again I commend the government for its Buy Australian policy. That's fantastic. I truly hope it succeeds. But don't trash the legacy of the previous government. Outline your plan for what you will do in the future. We saved the lives of 40,000 people and we saved jobs. What are you going to do?