Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the underlying strengths of Australia's economy? How is the government making the choice to invest in a smarter and fairer nation to build a stronger economy into the future?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for that question. Yesterday's national accounts data demonstrated the underlying resilience of the Australian economy. We face global uncertainty, and our economy is making some very big transitions at home.

In particular, the resource sector is transitioning from unprecedented growth and investment towards growth in production and exports. More broadly, we are making the transition to non-mining sources of growth. We can see this in the accounts yesterday—0.6 per cent in the quarter; 2.5 per cent through the year; faster than every major advanced economy. We have mining investment close to its peak, while private business investment is at 50-year highs. This investment is generating strong growth—export volumes up 13.2 per cent over the year—and we have record low interest rates, supporting solid consumption and, particularly, a recovery in housing construction.

But, as we know, this transition is not seamless. We have an economy which is 14 per cent larger than it was at the end of 2007, and that is because we got the big economic calls right. And we have got the big economic calls right again in this budget, where we are putting jobs and growth first and a slower transition in our economy back to surplus. So we support jobs and growth because we understand the importance of jobs and growth.

In the face of that story, what do we get? We get the opposition, day in and day out, trash-talking our economy: Senator Cormann up there in the Senate this morning, the shadow Treasurer almost every day and the Leader of the Opposition. We have even had the absurd claims in sections of the media of a possible recession. This sort of talk is deeply irresponsible. Those who go around talking like they do, particularly the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer, are deeply irresponsible. Every time they do it they show how unqualified they are to run a $1.6 trillion economy.

We on this side of the House understand to our bones the importance of supporting jobs and growth in an economy. We understand that. You showed how you did not understand that at the height of the global financial crisis, and you are showing it yet again. We are demonstrating it because we are also prepared to make the tough decisions to invest in the future, particularly through education. You trash-talk the economy; you waved our budget through up in the Federation Chamber this morning, then you go out in public and trash-talk the economy every day of the week. That shows how deeply irresponsible you are, and your approach if you were elected would be to cut education and health to the bone. That is what you are not prepared to tell the truth about to the Australian people.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I again remind the Treasurer that the use of the word 'you' is not appropriate.