Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer and it refers to an answer he gave a couple of moments ago on the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook. Is the Treasurer aware that on economic performance the yearbook concluded that, on the current account balance, Australia was ranked 41st out of 61 countries; on export of goods as a percentage of GDP Australia was ranked 54th out of 61 countries; on trade to GDP ratio Australia was ranked 57th of the 61 countries; on the real short-term interest rate Australia was ranked 45th out of 61 countries; on overall productivity—real growth—Australia was ranked 54th out of 61 countries; and on skill shortages, on qualified engineers, Australia was ranked 39th out of 61 countries? Treasurer, how does it feel having Australia ranked 54th out of 61 countries in export performance on your watch as the minister responsible for boosting this country’s export performance?

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

How does it feel? It feels 12 places better than when the Leader of the Opposition was in government. That is how it feels. When the Leader of the Opposition was in government, we were ranked 21st. Last year we were ranked 12 places better, and this year we are ranked a massive 15 places better.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the question was on export performance. We just had the budget; we want to know about—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. There is no point of order.

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

Too clever by half; the question was: ‘How does it feel?’ Let me tell you how it feels. It feels 15 places better than when the Labor Party was in government. I think there are 16 teams in the AFL; if you rose 15 places you would go from the bottom to the top—and it is because this government reformed the taxation system, balanced the budget, paid off debt, saw Australia through the Asian financial crisis, came through the international recession of 2000 and put 1.7 million people back to work. So how does it feel? It feels really good to have no Labor government in this country.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Melbourne is warned.