Karen McNamara (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

my question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the house on the transition that is underway in the economy? What is the government doing to ensure that Australia remains a high-waged, advanced economy with a fair social welfare net?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Today's national accounts show an economy in transition from the construction phase of the mining boom and heading in the right direction with strong growth in export markets, service industries and jobs. GDP growth for the September quarter was 0.9 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms and 2.5 per cent over the year to September.

Australia is entering a time of new opportunities in a global economy that, as we know, is more dynamic and rapidly evolving, changing and disrupting than at any other time in human history. That is why the opportunities for Australians have never been greater. There has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. There have never been greater opportunities for Australians, for Australian businesses, for Australian jobs.

We have gone through our largest ever investment boom. Mining investment rose from less than two per cent of GDP in the early 2000s to a peak of over seven per cent a decade later. From 2000 the lift in the terms of trade, driven by strong commodity prices, added 1.2 percentage points per year to growth in average incomes. In the future, growth in our national income, growth in our prosperity, growth in jobs, growth in our standard of living is going to depend on productivity and innovation. We have had the great stimulus from the terms of trade, and the mining industry will continue to be strong and productive, but that big investment hit has come and it has gone—it will perhaps come again but right now, here and now, for the next period ahead of us, we have to drive innovation and productivity. We do that by being more agile, challenging the way things have always been done, opening ourselves to the world, investing in infrastructure, making sure that Australians have the skills and incentives to thrive in the global economy. Above all, you need confidence and optimism. Confidence is something the opposition lacks. I have never seen a gloomier bunch over there—they are so filled with gloom, so unhappy. They are laughing now—they love to laugh at themselves. Here we are with the greatest opportunity, a transition from a mining construction boom, and we have had strong growth, growth in jobs, growth right across the board despite this huge transition, yet all we have from the Labor Party is gloom and misery. They do not have the confidence for a 21st century economy.