Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Hansard source

My question, again, is to the Prime Minister and refers also to today’s national accounts. Does the Prime Minister recall stating in a speech to the National Press Club back in December 1997:

We are—above all—a high growth government. The overriding aim of our extensive economic reform agenda is to deliver Australia an annual growth rate of over 4 per cent on average during the decade to 2010.

Can the Prime Minister confirm that today’s national accounts show that GDP grew by a lowly 2.2 per cent over the last 12 months and an average of barely three per cent in the first six years of this decade? Prime Minister, haven’t the government’s economic policies failed to equip Australia to be the long-term, high-growth economy that we need to be to maintain our long-term economic prosperity?

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