Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer. How is the government's national platform for economic growth and jobs backing Australians to work, save and invest? Will the Treasurer please update the House on the latest OECD report on positive signals within the Australian economy?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for his question and his strong interest in growing jobs and growing our economy, particularly in his electorate. Overnight the OECD once again indicated that global conditions for global economic growth remained tough. They do. And while we cannot control what happens in the global economy, we can control what our own policy settings are here at home—to support jobs and to support growth. This is what we are doing, with our strong national platform for jobs and growth in the Australian economy. We are focusing on the issues that will enable that growth. And the OECD said that our economic policy priorities, that what we are doing in terms of proposing structural reforms, adds to what they describe as 'upside risks', which means they are good for the economy. The OECD is saying that what we are doing to address the real reforms, the real changes that improve our economic performance are good for the economy.

The OECD are forecasting for Australia to return to trend growth. That is what they are forecasting. They are forecasting, and have confirmed, that in the last year our economy grew at more than the OECD average, and it grew at more than twice the rate of commodities-based economies like Canada. And that is in the face of what the Reserve Bank governor said very clearly is as intense headwinds as they are likely to get. So in the face of those very intense headwinds, our economy is growing.

But they said more. They said there have been positive signals on business confidence, on profits and credit growth in the non-resource sectors. They said unemployment will begin to trend downwards as rebalancing the economy towards noncommodity sectors continues. The OECD described the initiatives underway to strengthen infrastructure as 'welcome', and they support the government's focus on fiscal repair, stating that 'medium-term fiscal planning must remain strongly committed to putting the debt to GDP ratio on a downward track', which is what this government is doing. We will not be doing it by raising taxes; we will be doing it by growing the economy and controlling expenditure. It is those opposite who believe you balance a budget by making sure your revenue is higher than your expenditure. On this side of the House we seek to do it by ensuring that expenditure is less than the revenue.

The OECD also supports the government's focus on improving Australia's tax system, saying it would 'significantly improve'. It says the focus on the tax system would 'significantly improve the growth friendliness of Australia's tax system'. That is what we are about: working with the states and territories, working with the various groups that are out there to support strong growth in jobs and our economy, and a better tax system that does not put a higher burden on Australians, but it releases them and removes the impediments in the tax system to support growth and jobs, which is what we are about. (Time expired)