Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

and even a casual look at the key economic performance indicators of this country for these last 12 months indicates that. Let me go through just a couple before I go on to perhaps even more important circumstances. We heard so much about inflation during the first six months of this government. The genie was out of the bottle. It was the one thing within the target of the government, and they even failed to pursue that properly. Inflation is going up. What has happened with industrial disputes? There has been a six-fold increase in industrial disputation over the last 12 months. What about the real growth of Australian average weekly earnings? Australian average weekly earnings went up over 50 per cent over the last 10 years of the previous government. What have they done under this government? They have already fallen in the first year by a quarter of one per cent. Real average wages have fallen over the last 12 months. What about consumer confidence? As you would expect, it has plummeted dramatically over the last 12 months. What about retail turnover? What has happened to the small business people that the coalition seeks to represent? Retail turnover has dropped more than seven per cent and it is just in the positive. The retail sector is crying out for help.