Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer and refers to his previous answers. Why hasn't the Treasurer mentioned the following comment by the Reserve Bank governor:

What has become clearer, though, as time has passed is that Australia is likely to experience a run of years with unemployment too high and wage increases and inflation too low …

In that light, why are you so delighted with yourself?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today's result in the national accounts belongs to the Australian people. It is the Australian people whose sacrifice and hard work has seen the best quarterly result in the national accounts since 1976. It is the Australian people whose consumption has increased by—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will pause. The member for Rankin has a habit of asking a question and shouting wild interjections every 10 seconds through the answer. He is warned.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike those opposite we are not talking down the Australian economy. We are pointing to the successful economic indicators that are showing Australians getting back into work. What the Governor of the Reserve Bank has said is that the Morrison government's economic response has been the right response. What the Governor of the Reserve Bank said just this morning is that the economic recovery is underway. And what the Governor of the Reserve Bank has repeatedly referenced is programs like JobKeeper, with the Reserve Bank of Australia saying that our JobKeeper program has saved at least 700,000 jobs. At least 700,000 jobs have been saved by our JobKeeper program. We have seen in the recent ATO data for the month of October that there are two million fewer Australians on JobKeeper and 450,000 fewer Australian businesses on JobKeeper in the month of October compared to the month of September.

So the Governor of the Reserve Bank is absolutely right. The road ahead will be long, will be hard and will be bumpy, and the effects will be felt for years and years to come. But he also makes the very valid point that the economic recovery is underway and that the Morrison government's policies are doing what they have been intended to do to get Australians back into work.