Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moncrieff for her question and acknowledge her deep background in small business. With more than 30,000 small businesses in her electorate, and more than three million through the country, she knows how important small business is to growing jobs and as the backbone to the Australian economy.

In last week's national accounts we saw the Australian economy complete 28 consecutive years of economic growth—a record that is unmatched by any other country. In the June quarter the economy grew by 0.5 per cent and, on year average terms, by 1.9 per cent. This is in the face of significant headwinds, in particular the devastating impacts of flood and drought domestically and the global trade tensions between China and the United States. These numbers show the remarkable resilience of the Australian economy and they are a repudiation of all those who sought to talk down the Australian economy. As other economies have gone backwards—Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore and others—the Australian economy went forwards, growing again.

Our plan is very clear: a record 10-year pipeline of $100 billion on infrastructure spending; 80,000 new apprenticeships; lowering taxes in the most significant way in more than two decades; bringing the budget back into surplus for the first time in more than a decade; and creating more than one million new jobs. Those opposite have a very different approach. If you need any reminder of the Labor Party's tendency to put higher taxes on the Australian people and higher spending you only need to see who came out of the shadows last week—none other than Wayne Swan—to remind the Labor Party that they should not only keep their higher taxes but be proud of their higher taxes.

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