Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I know that the Labor Party is only interested in talking down the economy. But let's look at some of the facts. The ASX 200 sits at around a seven-year high. Dwelling approvals are 9.1 per cent higher than a year ago. Retail trade numbers have now risen for eight consecutive months, while investment outside mining and manufacturing hit a record high of $62 billion in 2014, up 10.7 per cent on the year, the strongest calendar-year gain in seven years.

We have started to implement our Economic Action Strategy. We have started to get rid of all these bad Labor-Greens taxes—the carbon tax and the mining tax. We have reduced red tape costs for business by $2 billion a year. We have actually got out there to pursue a positive agenda to strengthen the economy and create more jobs—three new free trade agreements, with China, Japan, and South Korea. Everywhere you look we are making positive decisions: $1 trillion worth of environmental approvals. We know that all the Labor Party can do is be negative. The Labor Party are a bunch of knockers. They are not interested in the positive direction Australia is now going in, clearly, because all we can hear from the Labor Party is knock, knock, knock, knock. (Time expired)