Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the chair of the House economics committee for that question about the national accounts. He is asking about the serious matters; and it does matter because the Australian economy had one of the fastest-growing quarters in the world in the first quarter of this year. We were faster than any other G7 nation and one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world in the first three months of this year. That is good news, isn't it?

Government members: Yes!

Yes, that is right. And we have helped to make it that way. We put in place an economic plan that has helped to give Australians the opportunity to get ahead. Do you know how we have done that? We have implemented a range of measures, such as: removing the carbon tax, removing the mining tax, and reducing the overall tax burden on Australians compared to what they would have had under Labor. We have seen job creation at nearly four times the speed as that of the Labor Party in their last year in office. In the first three months of this year, over 82,000 new jobs were created in Australia.

As the Prime Minister pointed out, one of the most impressive parts of the national accounts is that we have seen significant growth in services exports. I have stood here on numerous occasions and talked about how the services sector is 70 per cent of the Australian economy but only 17 per cent of our exports. Under our economic plan, we are lifting the services sector by giving them new free trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan. In our budget we are removing the burdens on small business, giving them the opportunity to invest in new equipment, to go out there and have a go. Those small businesses are going to be the innovators and the job creators of the 21st century Australian economy—

Ms Butler interjecting—

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