Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. This is the last joint party meeting of the year and as the parliamentary year closes it’s important to recommit ourselves to our great purpose which is to build a better life for the Australian people; to build a better life for the forgotten families of this country.

 

In the end our contribution to building a better life for the people of Australia will rest on the good and sensible policies that we take to the next election. But good policies don’t emerge from nowhere in an election campaign. Good policies rest on three years of hard work and that’s what we’ve been doing over the last two years. We’ve been doing the hard work needed to build the strong and positive plans that we will be taking to the next election.

 

We’ve been telling the Australian people about the values that we hold dear, our commitment to lower taxes, smaller government and greater freedom. Our commitment to the family and to the values and the institutions that have stood the test of time. Our commitment to this nation and our desire to see and place practical policies that we know will make our country as strong as it possibly can be.

 

So, we start with values, we move to commitments and then we build the positive plans that we will take to the Australian people at the next election.

 

Our positive plan is to deliver a strong, prosperous economy and a safe and secure Australia.

 

We will have lower cost of living pressures. We will have lower taxes, and we will have reduced debt under the Coalition. We will have a modernised economy and we will have stronger borders.

 

We want to ensure that this country of ours is the best place in the world to live, the best place in the world to bring up a family and the best place in the world to build a secure future. This is our positive, inclusive vision for our country. This is the hope, reward and opportunity that we are determined to build for the Australian people.

 

Now, I want to say to you that we have already put strong commitments in place. We have already told the Australian people what we intend to do to deliver them the strong and prosperous economy that is necessary for a safe and secure Australia.

 

There will be lower taxes. There will be more responsible and therefore lower spending. There will be higher productivity and there will be closer engagement with Asia. These are the commitments that are already there clearly on the record. These are the things that we stand for. These are the things that the people of Australia can trust us to deliver to them and that will give them the better future that they have a right to hope for.

 

Economic reform begins with getting rid of unnecessary taxes. We will get rid of the carbon tax because you do not help the environment by damaging the economy.

 

We will get rid of the mining tax because you do not improve our economy by penalising its most successful sector. We understand that no country has ever taxed its way into prosperity.

 

We will boost productivity by taking $1 billion a year of red tape costs off business, particularly off small business.

 

We will boost participation by amongst other things, trying to ensure that Australia at last has a fair dinkum paid parental leave scheme so that the mothers of our country, the women of Australia, can be full economic contributors, if that’s their choice, as well as social and family contributors.

 

And my friends, we will secure our borders. We will stop the boats by putting in place the policies that we know can work in the future because they have worked in the past.

 

If we can do what we have pledged to the Australian people that we will strive to deliver – and I am so confident that we can – we will deliver a million new jobs over five years, two million new jobs over a decade.

 

We will give the people of Australia the additional jobs that they need to be confident that there will be a strong and prosperous future for them and their children.

 

We will have a strong and diverse five pillar economy with manufacturing, with agriculture, with education, with services as well as with mining and resources because we will put in place the policies that will enable the creativity of the Australian people to flourish.

 

So, my friends, we can do it. We will do it. The Australian people deserve a better future and only the Coalition can deliver it to them.

 

Over the coming year, we will deliver the detailed policies that will put in place the commitments that we have already offered to the Australian people.

 

The detailed policies will start early in the new year because I want the Australian people, not just to vote against the current government, I want them to positively vote for this Coalition.

 

I want the Australian people to vote for us, not simply to vote against someone else.

 

We can do it. We can build a better country. We have a brighter future ahead of us and I am confident that 2013 is going to be a very good year for this Coalition and an even better year for this great country of ours, Australia.

 

[ends]