Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

He presided over an economy that had the largest deficit since the Second World War, a trillion dollars of debt with very little to show for it, sluggish economic growth, productivity sliding backwards, declining business investment, interest rates going up, the highest inflation quarter of any quarter this century, deliberate wage suppression and more Australians than ever in insecure work, and he comes in here and tries to make things up.

Compare that with our budget and our position that we are responsible for: the first projected budget surplus in 15 years. We had the largest number of new jobs for any new government in its first 12 months: 465,000 jobs. Pay packets are growing at a faster rate than they have in more than a decade. The gender pay gap is falling to a historic low. Compare the G7 countries. In GDP growth, we're on 2.3. Canada is next at 2.2—a little bit lower. France is at 0.9; Germany, minus 0.5; Italy, 1.9; Japan, 1.3; the UK, 0.4; and the US, 1.6. If you look at participation rates, ours is higher than any of the G7 nations. In employment growth, we're on 2.4 per cent, which is higher than any G7 economy, and, of course, we're the only ones with a projected budget surplus going forward. So we're very proud of our record, in spite of inheriting a bin-fire when it came to the economy under those opposite. It's no wonder the shadow Treasurer can't ask a question of the Treasurer about the budget in the budget sessions. He can bring in a novel and just read from it, because, from those opposite, he can't get a question about the budget. No wonder!

Honourable members interjecting—

See this speech in context