Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for McMillan for his question. I can inform the House that since the House rose, the week before last, we have had two very good pieces of economic news. The first was that unemployment has fallen to 4.2 per cent in Australia, the lowest rate since November 1974, and the second was that the national accounts showed that economic growth had accelerated and grown 1.6 per cent in the March quarter to be 3.8 per cent higher than a year ago. I am sure all members of the House will welcome that news. Even ex-members of the House welcomed that news. I saw Labor hero Paul Keating come out on Lateline. I knew the accounts must have been good because Paul Keating came out of retirement to claim credit for them! After 11 years, it was all his good work. He not only had some advice for the government; he had some—

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