House debates
Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Questions without Notice
Economy
2:24 pm
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source
I thank the shadow Treasurer for his very tight question there. I'll try to go through some of the items. Our economy, of course, is growing, unlike most of the advanced economies in the world. We haven't had a single quarter of negative growth; we've continued to have positive growth. Inflation is down to 2.4 per cent, down from the six per cent that we inherited. Wages are up. Inflation down, wages up. As a result, indeed, pay packets are growing at the fastest pace since 2012. It's very important.
Of course, at the same time, we have delivered tax cuts for every single taxpayer—opposed by those opposite—because we want people to earn more and we want people to keep more of what they earn. Those opposite want people to work longer for less. Unemployment is, of course, low. We have had the fastest employment growth, faster than any of the G7 nations, and we're really proud of that. On our watch, 1.1 million jobs were created, more than any government since Federation.
You would think, at a time where we have had global economic difficulties and global inflation having had an impact around the world, that when you piece all that together—the economy growing, inflation down, unemployment low and wages up—there would be some support from those opposite.
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