Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That was the weakest performance from an opposition member we have seen in an MPI in the last 18 months. It must have been an interesting opposition tactics committee meeting this morning. The national accounts figures came out at 11.30. At 12 o’clock the opposition had to lodge their submission for an MPI. The national accounts figures show that Australia is the fastest-growing developed economy in the world and that the government’s stimulus packages have played a role in cushioning the impact of the global recession. So what does some bright spark in the Leader of the Opposition’s office say? ‘Let’s lodge an MPI on the economy. This would be a good day for it.’ What is worse, the Leader of the Opposition says, ‘Good idea.’ Perhaps if they could have waited for the excruciating joint press conference between the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer before confirming their decision they might have come to a different conclusion. So desperate was the Leader of the Opposition to find a coherent line that he changed his view halfway through the press conference. He said at the beginning that there was no impact from the government’s stimulus plan on the nation’s economy and then he said, ‘Well, of course there’s been some impact.’ As a result of that we see their weakest performance of any we have seen in the last 18 months. The member for Bradfield would have done much better in that MPI than what we have just seen from the member for Wentworth.

Let us remind ourselves of the economic narrative from the opposition, as much as there has been one—well, there have been lots. Let us remind ourselves of the economic narrative as best they have been able to settle on it. They say the government’s economic strategy is not working. They say that the stimulus packages have not fed into growth and jobs. They say, and they have said on several occasions—the honourable gentleman the member for North Sydney said it; his leader has said it—that there is nothing to show for the stimulus packages. They say we have gone into debt and deficit and there is nothing to show for it. Well, their entire argument lies in tatters today, mugged by the facts.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has announced today that Australia grew by 0.4 per cent in the March quarter. Let us put that in context. In the same quarter the United States contracted by 1.5 per cent, Japan by four per cent, Germany by 3.8 per cent, France by 1.2 per cent, the United Kingdom by 1.9 per cent, Italy by 2.4 per cent and the OECD, on average, by 2.1 per cent. In our own region, in Asia, Malaysia has contracted by 4.4 per cent, Hong Kong by 4.3 per cent, Singapore by 3.9 per cent and Taiwan by 1.1 per cent. Of the 22 nations in the OECD that have reported for the March quarter, 20 have reported negative growth.

There are a number of factors involved in the positive growth in Australia, and exports have of course played their part. But also of vital importance has been the government’s economic management and economic stimulus. Household consumption expenditure increased by 0.6 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms. The opposition, which have spent the last 12 months ignoring the global financial crisis and saying it has no impact on Australia, now say the only reason we had positive growth was the global economy and exports. They ignore the global economy for 12 months but today, as they cast around, flail around, looking for a coherent line of defence, they say, ‘Ah! It’s the world economy.’

The Leader of the Opposition, this morning, in his excruciatingly embarrassing press conference—I actually had some sympathy for the Leader of the Opposition, trying to defend the indefensible this morning; it was excruciating—said: ‘The fact is that every economist, every economic writer in this country, will be making the same observation that Joe and I have made here today, which is that the biggest factor has been the overwhelming contribution from net exports.’

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