Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Singh for her question. Last week the national accounts were released. These were further confir­mation of the underlying resilience of the Australian economy. They showed that the Australian economy grew by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter. Across Australia, people were pleased to see that the Australian economy had grown and that we are continuing to see economic growth—with some small exceptions, of course: those opposite. Clearly, the only people in Australia who were not happy to see that the Australian economy grew in the last quarter were the opposition. All they have been wanting to do is talk down the economy and try to create uncertainty and fear with a whole range of assertions which are simply incorrect.

So we did not see Mr Hockey coming out and saying how wonderful it is that the economy is growing at this time. We did not see an opposition that was very pleased to that the economy is growing because of what that means for jobs and for certainty.