Well Luke, thank you so much, it’s a real thrill and an honour for me to be here. It’s a particular honour for me to be here in the presence of Doug Anthony, the Right Honourable Doug Anthony, Australia’s longest serving Deputy Prime Minister. It’s great to be with Peter Nixon, another giant of conservative politics and it’s lovely to welcome back to Canberra my friend and colleague and occasional sparring partner, Ron Boswell, until very recently the father of the Senate.
So it is terrific to be here amongst people who have been such an important part of my life, such an important part of the life of our conservative political movement here in Australia and such an important part of the life of our country. It really is good to be here and I know as you talk to Ron, you talk to Doug, you talk to Peter, you talk to Larry, you are proud of what they have achieved, but I hope you are equally proud of what we have achieved over the last 12 months because almost 12 months ago we saved Australia, we collectively saved Australia from the worst government in our history. It was the worst government in our history – as Paul Kelly reminded us all when he released his impressive and important book earlier this week.
Just think of what the former government did to us: 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat, an additional 200,000 people on the unemployment queues, there were the pink batts that caught fire in peoples roofs, there were the school halls that cost twice what they should have cost, there was the national broadband network that was billions and billions over budget and years behind schedule and then there was a fiscal disaster that made Gough Whitlam look like a responsible economic manager.
There was the $250 billion plus, the quarter of a trillion dollars plus in actual deficits, the six biggest deficits in our history that the former government ran up, there was the $123 billion in prospective deficits that they left us with, there was the $667 billion in projected debt that they saddled our country with – $25,000 per man, woman and child – and one billion dollars every single month just to pay the interest on Labor’s debt.
So that was our inheritance. It was the worst inheritance of any incoming government in our history, but we have risen to the challenge. We said we’d stop the boats and the boats are stopping; just one in over six months. We said we’d get rid of the carbon tax and the carbon tax is gone; and that’s a benefit to the average household of roughly $550 a year. We said we’d get on with the roads of the 21st century and there are more and more sod turning ceremonies right around our country and we said we’d get the budget back under control and that’s exactly what’s happening – it hasn’t gone as smoothly, I accept that, as we’d like, but it is not easy to negotiate legislation through a Senate that is controlled by our political opponents – and yes some of them are philosophical sympathizers but they are political opponents. Every single piece of legislation has to go through the Senate which is controlled by our political opponents.
Still, the job of budget repair is well and truly underway. Some $20 billion of budget savings are already through the Parliament, including the largest single saving measure of all, the $7 billion saving by reducing the growth in foreign aid. And if you look elsewhere, the National Broadband Network has achieved as much in the last 12 months as in the previous four years under Labor. We said there’d be free trade agreements negotiated by us and we have them with Korea, with Japan and we’re close to securing that deal with China. We said there’d be a one stop shop for environmental approvals for major projects and we’re close to achieving that and Greg Hunt has provided environmental approval to some $800 billion worth of new investment in this country. We are building a nation. We are building a nation and we are getting on with the job of making our country strong.
We’ve made a very, very good start but there is so much more to do and that’s what we’ll be doing over the next two years. You know the best thing that we can do for you, the best thing we can do for the people of Australia is build a stronger economy because that means more jobs and more prosperity for all.
So we’re repairing the budget. We’re building the roads. We’re ending the waste. We’re protecting the vulnerable and we’re building a strong and safe Australia. That’s what we’re doing. And yes, we’re getting the fundamentals right. We’re getting the fundamentals right and over the next 12 months you’ll see more work to get taxes lower, simpler and fairer. You’ll see more work to ensure that every level of government is sovereign in its own sphere and you’ll see more work to ensure that our people and our businesses are as productive as they possibly can be because we my friends, are engaged in a race for success, a competition for success and we must not fail, we must not let down our children and our grandchildren.
But it’s a great team that we’ve got. It’s a very, very good team and there is no stronger member of our team than our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Warren Truss. Warren is at the heart of this Government. Warren is in the engine room of this Government. Every critical decision that this Government makes is made by me and by the Deputy Prime Minister.
He sat in every single meeting of the Expenditure Review Committee. He sits in every single meeting of the National Security Committee of our Cabinet. All of the key decisions are better decisions because they are shaped and guided by Warren Truss – a man of common sense, of decency, of compassion and patriotism. I could not ask for a steadier friend and a better colleague than Warren Truss. Our country could not have a more careful and a more competent person at the highest levels of government and it is so important that we have people like Warren at the top of our Government. It’s important for regional Australia but above all else it’s important for good government; so it’s important for our nation because this Government, this Abbott Truss Government has a great historic mission.
As all of you know, the six years, from 2007 to 2013 were the worst years of government in the history of this country. Where government is concerned, they were years for the locusts to eat. They were a failure. They were a disaster. They were an embarrassment and our mission is to ensure that that is not the new normal. That is the great mission of this Government, to demonstrate to the Australian people that good government is not just necessary, but it is possible and it is here.
So would you please welcome to the lectern my friend, my colleague, our Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss.
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