Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House of recent economic data results? What does this data indicate about the strength of the Australian economy?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Deakin for his question. Since the House last met we have had the consumer price index for the December quarter, which showed an increase of 0.5 per cent in the quarter and 2.8 per cent through the year. These were very good outcomes, considering the pressure that petrol prices are putting on the economy and on inflation generally. We cannot afford to be complacent about this. There will be further pressure in the current quarter, but the important thing is to make sure that we do not have second-round effects, with petrol prices feeding into prices generally.

We have had, since the House last met, labour force figures for the month of December showing that unemployment remains at a 29-year low, at 5.1 per cent. We have also had moderate retail trade figures showing that in the December quarter retail trade volumes rose by 0.3 per cent to be 1.9 per cent higher than a year ago. As we have just heard from the Deputy Prime Minister, we have had welcome recovery in the trade performance, with a substantial increase in exports. All of this says that the Australian economy is in a strong position going forward, but we cannot afford to be complacent.

At the time of the last election I described the economy as a highly tuned performance car which, if you fiddled with modifications in different parts, you could knock off balance and easily turn into a mangled wreck. I had in mind the damage that could have been done to the Australian economy if Labor had been elected in October 2004.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Melbourne is warned.

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you want a picture of what the Australian economy could have looked like had Labor been elected, it would have looked much like the camera of the Daily Telegraph photographer after the former leader of the Labor Party got to it. If he could do that to a camera, what could he have done to the Australian economy? He was the man put forward by every single member of the Australian Labor Party to be Prime Minister, to have his hands on the levers of the Australian economy. The damage that was done to the Daily Telegraph camera pales into insignificance when compared to the damage that could have been done by Mr Mark Latham. The important thing in economic management is to have people who are stable, who know what they are doing and who are restrained. The Labor Party have not learned their lesson. They lined up to a man and to a woman to put forward for Prime Minister the member for Werriwa at the last election, and they have learned nothing in relation to economic policy.