Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I completely reject the premise of the question. I will just remind Senator Gallagher again that economic growth has increased. I reject the conclusion she's reaching. Economic growth has increased to 1.7 per cent through the year. She's quite rightly quoting that part of my previous statement—that what matters is what comes out at the end of the September quarter. What that shows is that economic growth has increased to 1.7 per cent through the year; that our economy continues to grow where other economies are shrinking; that real GDP grew by 1.7 per cent through the year; that household disposable income grew by 2.5 per cent in the quarter and is up 5.1 per cent over the year—the strongest quarterly rise in a decade—with the personal income tax cuts clearly flowing through; and that average compensation per employee rose by 0.7 per cent in the quarter to be 2.9 per cent higher over the year, which is also now back above the decade average. So things are heading in the right direction. (Time expired)