Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann, representing the Treasurer. Would the minister be kind enough to update the Senate on the national accounts data released today and explain what it means for the Australian economic outlook?

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

I thank Senator Bernardi for that question. What the national accounts data released today shows is that the Australian economy is strengthening and that we are successfully transitioning from the record resources investment boom to a broader based growth. What the national accounts released today show is that Australia is now heading in the right direction and that we are making progress.

GDP growth of 0.9 per cent in the last quarter is one of the fastest growth rates in the developed world. It now brings growth over the last year to 2.5 per cent, up from 1.9 per cent in the year to the end of June. Very pleasingly, the very strong result by international standards has been driven by a 4.6 per cent increase in exports. The growth in exports over the last quarter is the strongest growth since 2000, the good old years of the Howard economic partnership.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

I repeat this very slowly for Senator Conroy, who clearly does not get economic data: the growth in exports over this last quarter of 4.6 per cent was the strongest growth recorded since 2000, which was in the good old days of the Howard-Costello economic partnership—that very successful economic partnership.

Furthermore, domestic consumption is up. Dwelling construction is up. Employment growth is up. Job advertisements are up. The unemployment rate is down. So what I would say to the Senate is that, yes, Australia as we continue to work through this transition will continue to face further challenges, but we are getting through it. If you look at the national accounts data for the last quarter, our economy is strengthening and employment growth is strengthening. We have already seen this. We are now heading in the right direction, and we are making progress. (Time expired)

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I thank the minister, and I ask him: what do the national accounts say about exports, and what impact does this have on jobs and growth in the economy?

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

As I have indicated, the growth in exports over the last quarter was the strongest growth since 2000. Exports growth in the September quarter was broad based. The increase in exports combined with other positive data released today offers the prospect of increasing profits that will support increased investment and more jobs into the future. If you compare the number of jobs created under this government—more than 300,000 over the past year—with the record in the last year of Labor, more than 13 times as many jobs have been created in Australia over the past 12 months compared to the last year of Labor.

Of course, what Labor used to do was put more and more lead into Australia's saddlebag to slow us down. This government is actually making sure that we are as competitive as we can be, as innovative as we can be and as agile as we can be to take advantage of future opportunities. The data today shows we are heading in the right direction. (Time expired).

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I thank the minister for that comprehensive response. I ask: what are the further risks that the minister could identify to jobs and growth into the future?

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

As an open and trading economy we are always exposed to risks related to the state of the global economy, and of course at the moment we are dealing with significant falls in the price we can achieve for our key commodity exports. That is why it is so important for us to continue to pursue reforms that make us more competitive, such as our focus on a growth-friendly tax system for the future.

But the serious risk that our economy faces is that Labor has not learned its lesson from its last period in government. In the last period in government Labor gave us the Gillard carbon tax—at about $30 a tonne when they lost government. And now we are looking at the $200 Shorten carbon supertax, the $200 CST. It would be very bad for the economy. It would hurt jobs. It would hurt investment. It would hurt economic growth. It would shrink the economy by about $600 billion over 15 years. That is the last thing that Australia needs. (Time expired)