Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Kalgoorlie for his question. He represents an electorate in Australia that is a powerhouse of export at the moment. According to ABARE, forecasts for this year indicate that that is going to dramatically rise in the resources sector. But there is no doubt at all, in response to the member for Kalgoorlie, that Australia is a much better place economically today than it was 10 years ago—there is no question about that. During that period of time our government put the budget back in the black. From where it was for years and years, running deficit budgets, we eliminated government debt during that period.

We inherited a government debt level of about $96 billion as a legacy of Labor. We have restored Australia’s AAA credit rating. We have delivered more than 1.7 million jobs throughout the Australian economy and maintained an environment that has kept interest rates low. We have provided substantial tax cuts as the economy and the country could afford it. There are higher wages today, and the wages growth that has taken place during those 10 years has been based on productivity gains, not arbitrated outcomes, and there have been higher gains of real wages than in the 13 years of Labor.

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