Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He has not mentioned it, but I am sure as a good Christian that he would mention it at the appropriate time. The reality is we need to put everything in context, like the spin that comes out of the member for North Sydney—we need to put things in context. We need to remember that Australia has a $1.3 trillion national economy. We are not just talking about a small trucking business and not just talking about one household: we are a nation with an economy of $1.3 trillion.

It is important that we look at some of the other countries. The member for Dawson said, 'You should compare our situation to comparable countries, like resource-rich countries such as Canada.' He did not mention Canada, but obviously that is very comparable in terms of size, resources and population. Canada is very comparable. As I read through the list of significant countries in terms of GDP growth, we outdo the lot. In fact, I think the only one that is outperforming us that is comparable would be Taiwan, which is good for some of the constituents in my electorate.

When we are compared to Norway or Sweden—as mentioned by the member for North Sydney—or to the United States, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom or France, we are outperforming those countries. The reality is we are outperforming these countries. We have had 3.1 per cent growth and 0.6 per cent in the December quarter. However, what do we hear from those opposite? If they are overseas, they say that it is good. But no, because they are here, we hear the member for North Sydney say that our economy is flatlining. It is out and out misleading the public.

We have the Leader of the Opposition say that it did not grow. It did grow 3.1 per cent, but he says that it did not grow. The member for Dawson calls it a 'horror movie'. It must be like the Scary Movie version of a horror movie, because the reality is that when our economy grows like that it actually brings smiles to people's faces. Obviously, there are some stresses and this high Australian dollar is obviously something of concern. It is nice if you are an importer and your business is selling tires or something like that—as I inspected at one of my businesses yesterday. But to have a high dollar and these declining terms of trade is obviously something that is of concern to the government. Obviously, we could take a leaf out of the John Howard a playbook. If we taxed at their rates of taxing, we would have an additional $30 billion in taxes per year.

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