Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That’s right; next year! It would appear that there is a fairly clear difference between those electorates that the government won and those that it did not. I will get to that later. Economics is at the core of every government’s ability to govern. If you get the economics right you can pay for the programs, such as climate change, education, health and welfare support, just to name a few. If you get the economy right people can have a job. They can pay for food on the table, they can afford clothing and they can use money on transport to get to where they need to be. Those are the outcomes when you get the economics right for the people of Australia.

Now, in the lead-up to the election last year there were some clear expectations put out by the then opposition. Those expectations were that petrol would be reduced in price, that groceries would be cheaper and that housing would be easier to afford. The then opposition railed against the government in all these regards. A simple argument was put out there. What part it played in Labor’s election victory will always be debatable yet there were clear expectations, and they were raised for political gain. No doubt it was done very well. Words were carefully chosen. The impression that was left on Australians was that a Rudd Labor government would be a panacea but it did not take long before the election campaign gloss began to wear off.

The Westpac Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell by 8.3 per cent in January and 5.5 per cent in February this year, leaving the index 12.6 per cent lower than in February 2007. In February Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans, said that what the index means when it is under 100 points is that ‘pessimists now outnumber optimists’. In March it fell another 9.1 per cent to 88.6 per cent. But it is important that we keep this matter in balance lest I be accused of being selective with the figures. Let us look now at the good news. The Westpac Melbourne Institute index rose in May by 2.7 per cent to 89.8 points. Some may think that is impressive, but compare that to May 2007, when the index was at 123.9 points.

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