Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for his question and I know that he is centrally concerned about economic questions for the people of his electorate and the people of Tasmania. He has been a continuous advocate to me about the needs of the Tasmanian economy, particularly whilst its economy is in the kind of transition that we are seeing now. We will continue to work with the member for Bass and our Tasmanian members to address issues in the Tasmanian economy.

We do have new figures today that showcase the strength of our economy. Capital expenditure figures have shown a strong increase in the March quarter, up 6.1 per cent to be at 28.6 per cent higher than a year ago. This reflects the huge pipeline of resources investment flowing into our nation, nearly $½ trillion. While we should always be very cautious about quarterly figures, the year-on-year figures also show an increase in manufacturing investment. These figures today show the fundamentals of our economy are strong, an economy that has grown by 8.8 per cent since we came to office. While much of the world went backwards or at the very best stagnated, we have leapt forward by 8.8 per cent. What that means is that we are a government dedicated to managing the economy in the interests of working people and sharing the benefits of a strong economy and the current resources boom.

I had the opportunity to speak to the Minerals Council of Australia about that last night. I recognise that people work hard in mining and take big risks, but I also recognise that people in hospitals, people in schools, people in factories, people in shops work hard too and they are entitled to see a fair share of the resources boom. We will continue to be focused on spreading the benefits of that resources boom and we will not be prevented by the aggressive negativity of the Leader of the Opposition from getting that done. Despite today's figures of strong investment in the resources sector we have heard the Leader of the Opposition predict the death of the coal industry, the collapse of the mining industry, the end of manufacturing and entire towns being wiped off the map. I know many of his colleagues are worried that this aggressive negativity is reaching the point of no return, when on 1 July each of these claims is shown to be part of just fear mongering in the Australian community against the Australian national interest. Whilst the Leader of the Opposition continues with that reckless scare campaign, we will continue with the job of growing the economy in the interests of working people.

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