Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the outlook for the global economy, and how the performance of the Australian economy compares with that of its peers?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Fraser for a very important question. It is simply stunning, and an indicator of just how out of touch and unrealistic those opposite have become, that a question about the growth in the global economy should produce that reaction from them. The fact is that they have just become so divorced from reality and the issues that really matter to average Australians that in this House they are not capable of behaving in a proper manner.

Growth is going to be stronger than we would have thought a year ago. That is very clear from the meeting of G20 finance ministers that I attended on the weekend. It was a good opportunity to take the temperature, if you like, of the global economy and to assess its ramifications for our country.

Asian economies are likely to grow strongly, and that is a very good thing for Australia. Also, the US economy and its outlook are more optimistic at the moment than they have been for some time. But I have to tell members of the House that the European outlook is not great. There is very sluggish growth in Europe, and of course on top of that we now have instability in the Middle East and North Africa. That will certainly weigh on global markets, and it will certainly push oil prices higher.

But this does give an opportunity to reflect on where Australia is vis a vis the rest of the world. Output in this country has grown something like five per cent since the global financial crisis, whereas many countries around the world are still struggling to get back to the levels they experienced prior to the global financial crisis. You can see this immense difference between Australia and many other countries in our unemployment rates. Unemployment in this country, at five per cent, is around half of unemployment in the euro zone at around 10 per cent. And, of course, in the United States it is stuck stubbornly at nine per cent.

It is a great thing for our country that in these circumstances, given this outlook, we have been able to produce in excess of 700,000 jobs in the period that we have been in government. It is something that everybody on this side of the House is absolutely proud of, because it means pay packets going into households and it means breadwinners who are able to provide for their families in a way which we are not seeing across so many other developed economies. And, of course, our net debt, compared to other economies, is low, at 6.4 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, compared to 90 per cent of GDP in major advanced economies in 2015 and, of course, coming back to surplus in 2012-13. So we have an underlying economic strength that is not evident in so many other developed economies.

Of course, there are patchy parts of our economy, and we have seen today that non-residential construction is a little weak. Consumers in our economy remain cautious and, on top of that, we have had some of the worst natural disasters in our history. But, to counter all of that, we have a very, very strong investment pipeline to support growth in our economy and to support rebuilding as we go forward, and we are making investments in critical economic infrastructure, particularly the NBN, which is absolutely important to the productivity of our economy and future growth. We are engaged in health reform. We are building up a pool of national savings to make sure that we can deal with the consequences of the mining boom. These are all things which will secure the prosperity of our country, and we on this side of the House have a plan to broaden and strengthen our economy—unlike those on the other side of the House, who are all opposition and no policy.