Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Consistent with the production of economic data and forecasts in the budget, you will see that again the forecast for unemployment is to rise to 4.75 per cent in 2008-09. Consistent with what I have said both about growth and about the CPI, and similarly with the unemployment data, the government has been transparent through the budget papers in the budget which the Treasurer brought down in May.

I think what we see evident on the part of those opposite is a bit of a theme. We have had about six or seven questions now in question time—and what is the theme? The theme is talking the Australian economy down. What we have had from those opposite is a series of questions aimed at creating a negative sentiment and aimed at talking the economy down, and doing so pretty selectively against the available economic data.

I said last Thursday, I think, in response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition in question time, ‘Why is it that those opposite in framing their questions do not bother to draw attention to, for example, the capital expenditure data which came out of the ABS last week?’ That capex data projected capital expenditure investment by Australian corporations of some $100 billion for the year ahead. That seems to be missing from the narrative of those opposite. What is also missing from the opposition’s narrative is the matters just referred to by the Minister for Trade.

The Minister for Trade just went through what we have just had by way of the latest balance of payments and balance of trade statistics. A $559 million trade surplus in the June quarter 2008 was the first quarterly trade surplus in over six years.

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