David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for that question. It is a very insightful one and it goes to the heart of what this budget has been about. The member for Parramatta is right to point to the strength of this government's economic record. If you compare the Australian economy today to where we were before the GFC, we are now 13 per cent larger. There is no advanced economy that has achieved growth levels throughout that period of 13 per cent. I hear those opposite regularly try and make the claim that this is a government that is not interested in growing the pie. Well, this pie is bigger than anyone else's pie in terms of the way it has grown over the last few years. It has grown and grown and is 13 per cent larger. Countries like the UK are not even back to zero, not even back to where they were in terms of the size of their economy before the GFC. We are now 13 per cent larger. So I will not be lectured by those opposite when it comes to questions of growth and growing the national pie. Our pie is certainly growing.

When it comes to jobs, I make the point that I have heard in recent times the Leader of the Opposition—and I know the member for Casey was pretty fixated on this question of pamphlets—and I might take the opportunity to reflect upon the Leader of the Opposition's pamphlet that seems to adorn him at every press conference. He stands up in front of the camera and brandishes this blue pamphlet—

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