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

I thank the member for Robertson for her very important question. The G20 Leaders Summit in Los Cabos is a very important meeting, particularly given the volatility in the global economy and the situation in Europe. In Los Cabos the G20 did resolve to put in place work which will support recovery in the global economy and also to progress a solution to the problems in Europe. Importantly, it is united in its resolve to support growth and jobs. Growth and jobs are what this government has always been about. The G20 agreed to the Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan, which recognises that you can support growth and jobs and maintain fiscal discipline at the same time.

The G20 also moved to limit the continual fallout of the problems in Europe. Of course, European leaders resolved and committed to take all necessary steps to safeguard the integrity and stability of the euro area. The G20 did welcome those commitments. What we must do is limit the impact of the contagion to the rest of the world from the troubles in Europe. These are all positive steps. The fact is that Greece and Europe still confront very substantial economic challenges and they will not be resolved overnight. We will need to see further action by European leaders over the months and years ahead. Australia is not immune from these global developments, but we certainly face this global turbulence from a position of strength.

One reason we have this position of strength is that at the height of the global financial crisis and the global recession we acted to protect jobs and growth. As a consequence of that our economy, almost uniquely amongst the developed economies, avoided a recession. We have not suffered here the impact of high and prolonged unemployment and all of the capital destruction that we have seen across other developed economies. The result is that we have the best combination of impressive growth, low unemployment, record investment, contained inflation, low interest rates and strong public finances. The result is that our economy is 10 per cent bigger than it was prior to the global financial crisis, where many other developed economies are still smaller—not even getting back to that most basic starting point.

This is a record that everybody on this side of the House is proud of: 800,000 jobs in the period that we have been in office, and interest rates coming down—someone with a $300,000 mortgage is now paying $4,000 a year less than they were when the Leader of the Opposition was last in government. We are proud of that record. We think it is something that should be celebrated in this country and not talked down by those opposite.

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