John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the first part of the question is yes. The answer to the second part of the question is the historic structure of the Australian economy and the fact that we are now going through an unbroken period of economic growth and expansion. When you have economic growth and expansion, you drag in a lot of imports. The idea that you measure the performance of the Australian economy just by that particular yardstick is very ill-informed.

I can also confirm that we have the lowest unemployment in 30 years. I can also confirm for the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition that, against an OECD average of net government debt of about 47 per cent, ours sits at zero—despite the inheritance from the person whose policy foundations he so lavishly praised at his inaugural press conference. I can also confirm to the Leader of the Opposition that this country is experiencing the 16th consecutive year of economic expansion. Given the historic structure of the economy, it is not surprising that the factors that he drew attention to should be occurring.

See this speech in context