Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Bowman for his question. I can tell him that it is important to the Australian people that unemployment stays at 30-year lows, as it is currently, at 4.8 per cent. It is important that we continue to keep our economy growing, as it has, in the longest stretch of continuous economic growth ever recorded in Australia. But of course challenges will come to us from time to time. At the moment, we have the challenge of record high world oil prices—the challenge that that is bringing at the petrol pump—and also inflation, but it is important that we do not take our eye off the ball and that we continue disciplined economic management. This was a point that was made by the Governor of the Reserve Bank in an interview in the Weekend Australian on Saturday, which all members would have seen and read. Ian Macfarlane, the Governor of the Reserve Bank—a position he has held for the last 10 years—

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