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

I thank the honourable member for Bonner for his question today. The August figures on housing finance were released, which showed that housing finance commitments fell in the month of August but are 15.4 per cent higher over the course of the year. This is consistent with moderate growth overall in the housing market, although it is quite plain that in Perth the housing market is particularly strong and it is much more subdued in the eastern capitals.

Also released today was the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment, which rose 3.9 per cent in October and is now 7.2 per cent above the level of a year ago. Four of the five indexes rose in October and the index has now nearly entirely recovered the huge fall that it suffered in August. It appears as if the major reason for the rise in consumer sentiment is the fall in petrol prices. The all-capital petrol price last week around Australia was 116c per litre, down from its peak in August of 136c per litre. So that is a 20c drop in the average in capital cities over the last two months.

Indeed, looking at the oil price, the oil price, which overnight was $US58.50 a barrel, is some 20 per cent lower than it was in August. It might be too early to say that the oil price has peaked and stabilised, but a 20 per cent decline in the oil price over the last two months is certainly very welcome, and very welcome to Australian consumers, who are now paying in capital cities 20c a litre less than they were paying in August, and you are seeing that in consumer sentiment, which is now higher than it was this time last year. What all of this adds up to is continuing growth in the economy as a whole. We are now entering the 16th year of growth in Australia—the longest run of economic growth in Australian history.

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