George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr President; I am just trying to contextualise Senator Gallagher's observation about the health of the economy. As I was saying, 27,100 additional full-time jobs in the last month is one of the results that the Turnbull government has lately delivered—of 534,400 new jobs created in Australia since the coalition government was elected. That is another of the results since the Turnbull government was elected.

Turning directly to your question in relation to the household savings ratio, that is an indicator that goes up and down, as you know. To isolate that one indicator in the absence of an overall picture of the health of the Australian economy is surely an entirely irrelevant thing to do. If you want to get a picture of the state of the Australian economy, look at the major indicators. Look at economic growth. Look at business confidence. Look at the growth of the labour market. Look at the participation rate. Look at the big indicia. All of them tell the same story—a story of prosperity, a story of economic growth unmatched by anything that occurred during the unlamented period of your government. (Time expired)