Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

You asked me to quote annual growth, and I am happy to. The Treasurer asked us to speak about annual growth and I am happy to do it. I am happy to talk about the decline in annual growth on his watch. There is a causality because, when you have a Treasurer who introduces a budget that attacks the family budgets and the budgets of Australian pensioners, you are going to see an impact on confidence, as we have seen, and we see an impact on economic activity.

The Treasurer is, again, quick to blame international economic circumstances but it was not that long ago that he was claiming credit for international economic growth. Remember the rather ambitious claims of the Treasurer at the G20 meeting in Brisbane? He had convinced all the world's finance ministers to add to economic growth.

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