Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, and I recall very recently visiting his electorate and those of his colleagues, the other two of the 'three amigos' in Tasmania, and seeing the extraordinary optimism in Tasmania about the opportunities given by these free trade agreements. I can say that every sinew of this government is working as hard as it can to deliver a stronger and more prosperous future. We are not interested in reform for reform's sake. With all due respect to the member for Fraser, we are not interested in getting the plaudits of economics professors. What we want to see is jobs. We want to see exports. We want to see investment. We want to see confidence. We want to see businesses proud to be Australian and convinced that their government is getting on with the job.

Can I say there is clearly a growing sense of optimism in the land today. Today's Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence shows that for the first time since May optimists outnumber pessimists. Consumers are becoming more optimistic about their future conditions, and that is good. The Australian Institute of Company Directors has also reported today on a two-year high for positive sentiment.

So the confidence in the government is being reflected in the confidence in the economy. That will result in jobs, it results in investment and it results in a stronger economy. For the sake of the Treasurer, I can say that a stronger economy will result in stronger revenues to deal with the deficit we inherited from the Leader of the Opposition and his friends from when they were in government.

I will be leaving tomorrow for overseas. I will be leaving for the G20 summit in Turkey. That is obviously the meeting of the world's 20 largest economies. The focus of the G20—led by the outstanding leadership of the former Treasurer, Mr Hockey, in 2014—was on growth. Since the Brisbane summit there have been stronger headwinds in the global economy. The OECD, as honourable members would know, because I am sure they all read the OECD reports very carefully—

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