Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to his previous answer, in which he referred to the importance of services for economic growth. I also refer to comments today by the CEO of AiG:

The services sector remained disturbingly weak in November, reflecting fragile consumer and business sentiment …

and:

The Australian economy remains stuck in the slow lane.

When will the Treasurer acknowledge that the budget has hurt jobs and the economy?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not. I will tell you why: because Labor left us with a job creation figure—you never got the AAA credit ratings. We also left you with a surplus. We also left you with no net debt. We also left you with unemployment with a four in front of it, not a six. We also left you with a prosperous and confident Australia. We also left you with a mining industry that was able to respond immediately to the massive demands that came—

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order: to be directly relevant the minister must address the substance of the question asked and not merely give us a farrago of mendacity.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am quite familiar with that statement. However, I think the Treasurer is within the confines of the question.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think some of the honourable member's colleagues thought 'farrago' was an old Abba song. The fact is, we left the Labor Party with a terrific economic legacy, and it deteriorated under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. We are trying to rebuild that legacy so that Australians can be more confident about the future. It is difficult.

There are headwinds in terms of terms of trade coming off from record highs. There are headwinds with the Australian dollar having been stubbornly high. There are headwinds internationally, where we are not seeing the sort of growth that was previously expected right across the world. There are headwinds when we have trading partners like Japan going into recession in the last few months; or in the case of Europe, Italy going into recession; or in the case of the Unites States—even though there is good news in the United States, the fact is that it is not as broad and as strong growth in the United States as many would have expected or hoped for. The fact is that China is not growing at the same speed that might have been expected and they are now our biggest trading partner.

But when you are resilient, when you are strong and when you are confident, you can cope with adversity. We are climbing a mountain of challenges, but we are determined to get to the top of it. Why? Because we have a plan to get to the top that is built on the back of sensible economic reforms, a measured approach to getting the budget back into surplus but also, importantly, doing everything we can to help to stimulate growth and confidence in the Australian economy.

I say directly to the Australian people: we want you to go out and spend for Christmas. We want you to go out and spend not just for Santa Claus but for Australia. We want you to do that because, ultimately, 2015 is going to be better than 2014, and that is because we are putting in place the sorts of reforms that are making the Australian economy more confident, that are making businesses more confident. That is illustrated in the latest job expectation and job advertisements data which confirms that we are on track to get more jobs into the Australian economy in 2015.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the honourable the member for McMahon, I would like to welcome and notice in the chamber the former senator and former minister in the Howard government, Chris Ellison. We make him most welcome.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer to today's—

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sorry.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have the call, Madam Speaker.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon will resume his seat. In fairness to the member for Dobell, I was distracted by the presence of the former senator—such an outstanding person he was that it did distract me—so I do give the call to the member for Dobell.