John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The answer is no. It is true that the national accounts showed growth for the year to the September quarter of 2.2 per cent. It largely—not entirely—reflected a decline in farm production of 10 per cent. That is due to something that we all abhor and that is the drought. Maybe the Leader of the Opposition has an answer to that which has escaped the rest of his 20 million fellow Australians. We have 10 per cent being taken out of farm production so that farm GDP is 11.4 per cent lower over the year. There is a feature article accompanying the national accounts, and the ABS suggests that the drought will directly subtract about half of one percentage point from overall growth in 2006-07. That is a matter of very great concern, particularly to those farmers around Australia, which this side of the House proudly represents, who are grappling with the drought. The economy in September was badly affected by the drought.

In relation to growth and economic achievement, nothing that the Leader of the Opposition draws comfort from in these accounts—what he apparently thinks is comfort is largely caused by the impact of the drought—alters the fact that we have now had 16 years of continuous economic growth and we have the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years. The problem is not finding jobs for people who want them; increasingly, it is finding the workers for the jobs that are vacant. That is the dilemma of the modern economy which has been created by the economic policies of this government. It is a terrible dilemma.

See this speech in context