Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Will the finance minister provide the House with an overview of last week’s national accounts and what the figures say about Australia’s performance during this global recession?

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

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. The June quarter national accounts that were published last week indicated that the Australian economy is the only major developed economy that grew over the course of the 2008-09 year, and that, in the previous quarter, the economy grew by 0.6 per cent and, indeed, over the year the economy grew by 0.6 per cent.

Within the detail of the national accounts, you can see evidence that the government’s stimulus strategy has been working. In particular, household consumption increased by 0.8 per cent over the course of the quarter, indicating that the cash payments that were put into the economy to stimulate economic activity had a significant effect. The business investment figure for the quarter increased by two per cent—equally indicating that the tax incentives put in place, specifically for small business but also for business generally, were having an effect, bringing forward business investment, bringing forward business expenditure, to help sustain the economy at a time when private activity has been generally retreating. Finally, you will also see that public investment increased by 0.8 per cent over the quarter—namely, that the infrastructure investment program of the government, as part of its wider stimulus strategy, has also been having an effect.

The Treasury calculates that, without the government’s stimulus strategy, Australia would have suffered three consecutive quarters of negative growth. That would mean technical recession—three consecutive quarters of negative growth—and that we would have had 0.3 per cent negative growth over the course of the recent quarter, not the 0.6 per cent positive growth that we have experienced. Australia now is the fastest-growing economy in the developed world, and we have the second-lowest unemployment. The government is focused on the short-term challenge of tackling the flow-on consequences of the global recession and the global financial crisis, but also is very much focused, in doing so, on the longer term productivity challenges facing its nation. That is why the bulk of its stimulus strategy is focused on investing in infrastructure, investing in improving our education systems  and investing in the long-term drivers of productivity.

I would have to ask: just how much evidence does the opposition need in order for it to understand that the government’s stimulus strategy is having a positive effect on the Australian economy—that it is working? They have consistently opposed this strategy. They have consistently voted against this strategy. They have consistently locked themselves into a foolish position. And they are now desperately groping around for any last little bit of political nitpicking they can throw at the stimulus strategy in order to justify their position.

I note that the Leader of the Opposition, it was claimed a week or so ago in the media, was trawling around 10 years ago to become Labor shadow finance minister. This was of some concern to me because I was shadow finance minister at the time. I did not know he was stalking me! I am not quite sure whether it would have had a positive impact on the fiscal position of the opposition, but we live in hope. And there is still time. We have had three shadow finance ministers over the past 18 or 20 months and, given the leadership turmoil on the other side, it is still possible that the member for Wentworth could end up as shadow finance minister before this parliament is out. But I sincerely hope that the opposition, irrespective of the position that the member for Wentworth and Leader of the Opposition currently holds, rethink their position on the government’s stimulus strategy, because these national accounts demonstrate that, against very powerful negative forces from the international economy, we are succeeding in pushing back and keeping the Australian economy growing positively, sustaining jobs and employment, at a time when they are collapsing throughout the rest of the developed world.