Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

():  I acknowledge the immense contribution the member for Hughes is already making in this place. I also acknowledge his predecessor in the public gallery, as I'm sure he would like me to do.

We've got some good news in the economy today. Our economy grew 0.8 per cent in the quarter and 2.6 per cent through the year. This means that growth in our economy is now stronger and broader, and it's very welcome. This is faster growth than every major advanced economy. It means per capita growth is now the strongest in more than three years. It's the strongest GDP growth in almost three years. But it's the composition of that growth which is especially encouraging because there's more growth in business investment, there's more growth in dwelling investment and there's growth in market sector productivity and also in consumption—even though consumption came in a bit weaker than we expected.

These are encouraging numbers which provide a really robust foundation to confront the intense global economic volatility which has been dialled up by escalation of the conflict in Iran and the Middle East more broadly. We have very serious challenges in our economy, but these numbers show that we have very substantial advantages as well. We are very well placed to deal with what's coming at us from around the world. What these numbers show is that 2025 is all about the big recovery in the private sector in particular. Private demand grew faster and contributed over three times more to economic growth than public demand, in annual terms. Within a year, annual private demand growth more than tripled but annual public demand growth more than halved compared with 2024.

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