Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question again is to the Prime Minister and is also on the economy. I refer the Prime Minister to his target to achieve average economic growth of more than four per cent during the decade. Prime Minister, with non-farm GDP reaching just 2.6 per cent over the last year and zero productivity growth over the last 2½ years, is it not implausible to blame the drought, as you did yesterday, for the government’s failure to come anywhere near its growth target?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is not what I said. The Leader of the Opposition is trickily slipping into misrepresentation. What I did say yesterday was that the drought had obviously had an impact on wetlands. I was asked a question about wetlands by somebody up there. I think it may have been the member for Melbourne Ports. He is nodding his head. I remember his question well. And I was asked a question about the national accounts. Obviously the drought has had an impact, but, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to get into a comparison of economic performance over the last 10½ years, bring it on.