Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

He can't get a question, so he's left to shouting out! There he goes! I thank the member for Moore for his question. I acknowledge his experience in business prior to coming to this place and also the fact that, in his electorate of Moore, more than 70,000 taxpayers will get a tax cut as a result of legislation that we on this side of the House have supported, and more than 10,000 small businesses are able to access the instant asset write-off that, again, we announced in this year's budget.

The Australian economy, like many economies around the world, is facing significant domestic and international economic headwinds. When it comes to the trade tensions between the United States and China, the IMF have said that, if they're not resolved by next year, you could see some $700 billion wiped off global GDP. In the national accounts today we saw the impact of the drought—5.9 per cent farm GDP down through the year. We know that the drought is affecting two-thirds of Queensland and around 95 per cent of New South Wales. Despite that, despite those economic headwinds, the Australian economy showed remarkable resilience and continues to grow. In fact, growth has increased to 1.7 per cent through the year and 0.4 per cent through the quarter. We've seen increases in public final demand, we've seen net exports contribute to GDP, and we continue to see the government, with its $100 billion 10-year infrastructure pipeline, creating more jobs across the economy.

For the first time in more than 40 years, we've seen a current account surplus—now a record current account surplus—of $7.9 billion as a result, in part, of the free trade agreements that this side of the House has supported. We've also seen, for the first time in 30 years, welfare dependency down to a low, such as it is. We've seen the biggest tax cuts in more than 20 years. And, as the Prime Minister has said, household disposable income has had its fastest increase in a decade. Of course, the budget is back in balance for the first time in 11 years and we're delivering the first surplus in 12 years.

Mr Speaker, could you imagine if those opposite had got their chance in government? They would have been whacking the Australian economy with $387 billion in higher taxes—higher taxes that the member for Rankin said he was pleased about and higher taxes that 'Chairman' Swan still wants Labor to hold onto. Only this side of the House can be relied on to see the economy continue to grow. Only this side of the House can create more jobs and only this side of the House can continue to lower tax. (Time expired)

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