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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question and believe that the shadow Treasurer should take into account the facts about the Australian economy. Of course, individual businesses will make commercial decisions every day in the Australian economy. Of course we expect that to happen. But the shadow Treasurer should recognise, too, when he is talking about our resources sector in Australia, that there is currently a $270 billion pipeline of investment committed and $230 billion in planned capital.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

The shadow Treasurer may want to bellow, but no amount of bellowing changes the facts, and they are the facts. The shadow Treasurer, too, if he is interested in this question, may want to pay some regard to the work of the bureau of resources, which has recently published some material, and even to the Reserve Bank of Australia minutes—the shadow Treasurer might be interested in those. The data from the bureau of resources shows that we will see export earnings, in their calculation, in 2012-13 at $189 billion. They, of course, are replicating to the Australian community what we have said about the commodities boom, and that is: that we expected commodity prices to peak in 2011, but then we expected, beyond the peak of commodity prices, to see the continuation of production and the continuation of investment, and so we will. The Reserve Bank has made similar points about the Australian economy and its outlook.

The shadow Treasurer has determined that it is his job not to pursue Australia's national interest but to talk the Australian economy down. It ought to be incumbent on everyone in this House to be talking about the strength of the Australian economy and to be talking very clearly about the trends in the Australian economy. There are businesses under pressure as a result of the sustained high Australian dollar; there is no doubt about that. And that is why we have been working so strongly with manufacturing, why we will continue to work with tourism, and why we have worked hard with our universities on international education, because the high dollar matters to them as it matters to a large number of other businesses. But the shadow Treasurer should be out there telling the truth about the Australian economy—an economy that is growing, an economy that is offering Australians the benefits of work, an economy with low inflation, an economy with low interest rates. Of course we will not see the shadow Treasurer speaking about those truths, because he is following the Leader of the Opposition down a path of reckless and destructive negativity.

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