“I got a tip, I’ve got a tip for you,” said ScottyFromMarketing eleventy months ago

Kaye Lee

5 years ago

Eleven months ago today, Scott Morrison launched the Coalition election campaign.

The following is an extract from his speech.

“I believe that Australia is a promise to everyone who has the great privilege to call themselves an Australian. You know what that promise is? We know it. It’s the promise that allows Australians, quietly going about their lives, to realise their simple, honest and decent aspirations – quiet, hardworking Australians.

An Australia where, if you have a go, you get a go.

Where you’re rewarded and respected for your efforts and contribution.

An Australia where you can live in an economy that enables you and your family to enjoy the best living standards and be able to plan for your future with confidence.

A country where your children get the best possible start in life; a great education and can grow up safe, safe.

A country where older Australians are respected, where their savings are secure and they get the help they need and the recognition they deserve.

But you know, it’s also a country that acknowledges the First Australians and unceasingly strives to ensure that every Indigenous girl and boy can grow up with the same opportunities as every other Australian. That’s the promise and you know, it’s so much more. This is why all the peoples of the world have come here to call Australia home and make us the most successful immigration country and multicultural nation in the world today.

That’s the promise of Australia friends. To all the Australians listening, that’ s the promise of Australia. A hard-won promise provided by the generations that went before us and must be improved by us in this current generation, to pass on to those generations that will follow. You know there is no-one to whom this promise of Australia is more entrusted to than the person you elect to be your Prime Minister. It is my vision for this country, as your Prime Minister, to keep the promise of Australia, to all Australians.

You know, it all begins with keeping our economy strong. A stronger economy, where people have the confidence to invest more, to employ more, to invent more, to work hard. Because people matter, as Mum said, a stronger economy matters. Because the economy is what people live in. It’s real.

By 2030, around 800,000 more Australians today will be on the aged pension. They’ll be depending on a stronger economy and under our Government’s policies, as Josh has said, we have made our economy stronger and we’ll continue to do so in the future.

Growth is higher. There are 1.3 million more Australians in jobs. 95 per cent of the jobs created in the past year have been full time. Last financial year, more than 100,000 young people got a job. How good is that?

An all-time record!

230,000 new small and family businesses have been created. 70 per cent of our trade is now covered by export agreements, up from just 26 per cent under Labor. We have a plan to keep it that way. A plan that will see 1.25 million more Australians get a more over the next five years, one in five of those jobs will be for younger Australians. a plan that will see another 250,000 small and family businesses open their doors during the next five years. A plan that will give an additional 80,000 Australians a career by gaining an apprenticeship and particularly out there in rural and regional areas, where we’re doubling down on ensuring that in regional areas, we can get more apprentices. A plan that will see 10,000 more Australian champion companies, exporting beyond our shores by 2022, supported by export deals that then will cover around 90 per cent of our trade. That’s what an economic plan looks like.

To run a stronger economy as Mathias Cormann knows – because he’s been doing it with us for the last six years – to run a stronger economy requires a government that knows how to manage money.

If you can’t manage money, you can’t run the country.

Have you ever noticed this? How those who can’t manage money always end up spending more of it, and never spend it well? What they say, those who can’t manage money, what the costs will be – if they’re game enough to tell you – that’s only just where it begins.

The real cost comes after their big spending programs fall victim to their incompetent administration. We have seen it every time under Labor.

School halls, last time. Pink batts. Cash-for clunkers. Border protection failures. Welfare blowouts. Rorting.

You know, Labor’s appetite for big spending always exceeds their competency to spend it wisely or properly. You know, that’s the bill you really cannot afford.

And as we know, when Labor runs out of money, they always come running after yours soon after. So, today, I’m not getting into a spend-a-thon with Labor. They’re welcome to it. Reckless spending is not a vision, Australians. It’s a burden on current and future generations. So I say to Australians; do not allow Labor’s reckless spending to start. Vote Liberal and Nationals next Saturday.

Our Government has restored our nation’s finances. We have turned that around. We have kept our Triple A credit rating. We have handed down – well done Josh and the entire ERC team – the first Budget surplus in more than a decade, back in the black.

And by staying on this path we will eliminate the debt within a decade, without raising your taxes. We have achieved this by getting spending growth under control, getting Australians off welfare and into work – and treating every dollar provided to us by the taxpayer with respect. It’s what Liberals are Nationals do. You know, central to our plan of keeping our economy strong, is our plan to keep lowering taxes for hard-working Australians and small and medium sized family businesses. Making life just that little bit easier. We believe you should keep more of what you earn, because your money is better off in your hands than the Government’s.

We believe, as Liberals and Nationals, that you know what is right for you, your family and your business. We believe that you, Australians, are the answer to keeping our economy strong. Those who believe in big taxing, big spending agendas, are not only prepared to experiment with our economy at a time when we can least afford it. They believe that they know better than you.

We don’t buy Labor’s politics of envy.

I want more Australians to be able to realise the dream of owning their own home. We have already put strong foundations in place. A strong economy is of course critical to that.

And I’ll tell you what we won’t do; what we won’t do is undermine the value of the home you have saved so hard to buy.

And today I make this pledge and I challenge Bill Shorten to do the same; I pledge to the 13.5 million Australians with private health insurance, there will be no private health insurance cuts under my Government.

I will not punish Australians for taking responsibility for themselves and their families.

I want young Australians to be full of hope and living their life positively for the future. I am on a mission on this and, as Jenny knows, when I get determined I get very determined.

And our $3.5 billion Climate Solutions Package is taking real action on climate change.

That’s real action on climate change that we are doing our bit as we should as a global citizen, but I’m not going to do it and put our kids economic future at risk.

And I’ll tell you another thing; I’m not going to do it by telling you what car you can drive. I wonder if he’s looked up the price yet.

We have saved the Great Barrier Reef – well done to Greg Hunt particularly on his work when he was Environment Minister – taking it off the endangered list.

Operation Sovereign Borders, I never get tired of referring to that because it remains one of our Government’s signature achievements. It has been a privilege to have been a part of it, with so many others, as I said before. But Australians know this; only the Liberals and Nationals could have stopped the boats. And only the Liberals and Nationals can be trusted to ensure they remain stopped.

Our Defence Forces can also continue to rely on the Liberals and Nationals. We set our commitment to restore Defence spending to 2 per cent, from the 1.56 per cent – pre Second World War levels, where the Labor Party left it. To get it back to 2 per cent of GDP, we said we’d do that and we will be doing it three years earlier than we promised in 2020-21. And our plan will grow the permanent ADF work force our Defence workforce, to 62,400 under our future plan over the decade and more than that, provide them with a capability and equipment and the support they need to do the job.

So in conclusion, with a stronger economy, the Liberals and the Nationals will deliver on our plan to create a 1.25 million more jobs and better paid jobs over the next five years. We’ll maintain the Budget surpluses and pay down debt. Deliver real tax relief for families and for small, hardworking businesses. Will guarantee increased funding for schools, hospitals, medicines and roads and keep Australians safe and keep our borders secure. And we’ll do that, as Josh said on Budget night, without increasing your taxes.

So the election, friends, is about a choice. The choice of who you can trust to keep the promise of Australia, to all Australians as Prime Minister. Myself or Bill Shorten.

The choice between a Government that knows how to manage money, has returned the Budget to surplus and will now pay down debt.

Or Bill Shorten and Labor, whose reckless spending and higher taxes will put all of that risk, at the worst possible time. There are storm clouds and tensions ahead. The choice between a Government that will ensure you keep more of what you earn, or Bill Shorten and Labor that will hit you and weaken our economy which impacts all 25 million Australians with $387 billion in new and higher taxes.

The choice between a stronger economy under my Government, that can guarantee funding, real funding, for hospitals, schools and roads, and Labor who always runs out of money and always comes after yours.

It’s the choice between a Prime Minister in myself who just wants to back, acknowledge and cheer on the decent and simple and honest aspirations of Australians – and Bill Shorten, who just wants to tax all of those aspirations more.

So, together with my whole team, we’re asking Australians for your support next Saturday, to vote Liberal and to vote Nationals, so together we can build our economy, to secure your future and so we can keep the promise of Australia to Australians, in this generation and the next. Thank you very much.”