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

And what they did as a result of that, when you had the highest inflation growth of any quarter of this century, and interest rates beginning to rise—their response—was to hand out a budget that just splashed money everywhere and made the fiscal situation worse. Indeed, they put forward a budget that projected a $78 billion deficit, and what we did was turn that around. We turned that around so that the projection is for a $4 billion surplus and we did that while we have the strongest jobs growth in the first year of any new government in Australian history—465,000 new jobs created. For the first time, more than 14 million Australians have a job. If you compare Australia's economic performance, GDP growth, at 2.3 per cent is higher than all G7 countries. Our participation rate is higher than all G7 countries. Our employment growth is higher than all G7 countries, and we are the only ones with a surplus. I understand that those opposite wouldn't recognise it, having produced record deficits, having presided over the first recession in Australia in 30 years.

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