George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline what the national accounts data released today tells us about the state of the economy? How is the government building a stronger economy? How will this help my constituents in my electorate of Dawson?

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

I thank the member for Dawson for the question. I note that he is a great and indefatigable advocate for jobs in his electorate, particularly through his advocacy of the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion, which will create jobs, as he has raised with me and, I am sure, many of my colleagues. The Minister for Communications just mentioned Switzerland. Yesterday I was able to sign an agreement with the Swiss government that ensures that the Australian Taxation Office can find out all those Australian people who have Swiss bank accounts. I bet there are a few people in the Labor Party shuddering at that thought. There is a former minister for communications who has a television program who might have had a Swiss bank account. But I will leave that to another day.

Speaking of accounts, the national accounts data released today showed that the Australian economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the December quarter to be 2.5 per cent higher over the past year. That 0.5 per cent is up from 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter. As a result, it illustrates that Australia now is running a growth rate that is comparable to that of the United Kingdom, a bit better than that of the United States and Canada and certainly better than that of Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Japan and a number of other countries.

We are doing that despite the fact that we have had a massive drop in mining and resources investment in Australia. That has been reflected in the profit results from BHP and Rio, who are two of our top 10 major taxpayers. They had their profits halved—in some cases more than halved. That illustrates the pressure that has been put on the Australian economy as a result of the changes in commodity demand and, more importantly, commodity prices. Despite that, we are seeing the rest of the Australian economy lift. We are seeing an increased level of investment in the services sector. That is directly linked to the new opportunities that this government has opened up through free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China, and we are starting to see Australian consumers come back writ large—in fact, Australian consumers have dramatically increased their spending in the December quarter, and at the same time housing investment is up 2½ per cent in the December quarter, for a remarkable 8.1 per cent for the year, which is near record levels. This is all flowing through the Australian economy, and it means more jobs and greater prosperity for everyday Australians.