Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We have just heard yet another demonstration of the economic incompetence of all of those opposite. He wants to somehow pretend that the South Australian economy is not connected to the national economy. We have been in this House day after day, and we have seen baseless scare campaign after baseless scare campaign, but that question takes the cake. We had a contraction in the national economy of 1.2 per cent in the national accounts yesterday and that has hurt right around the country. Of course there are regional differences and we do have a patchwork economy, but anybody who knows about the national accounts will know that when you look at the state-by-state breakdowns they are volatile and you cannot just see them one quarter by one quarter. You cannot look at them like that, and nobody who is serious about economics even tries to look at them like that. But, we are absolutely serious on this side of the House about supporting the economy nationally and supporting it right around our country. And it was not the only state that went backwards on the quarterly figures. The fact is, we had a really hard hit and those on that side of the House want to ignore the fact it happened at all.

In his budget reply the Leader of the Opposition spoke in this House for 30 minutes and did not mention the single biggest economic event in our economy this year—and, in fact, as it turns out, in 30 years.

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