Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer tell the House what the national account figures for the March quarter that were released this morning tell us about the state of the economy and the importance of responsible budgetary management?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Longman for his question. The Australian economy grew by 1.1 per cent in the March quarter this year.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's good.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is good. And it means that for year on year it is about 3.5 per cent. Household consumption increased by 0.5 per cent in the March quarter to be 2.8 per cent higher over the year. Dwelling investment rose strongly, up 4.7 per cent. And dwelling investment will continue to improve. There is going to be a significant pipeline of construction activity over the next few months which will mean a lot of jobs for plumbers, electricians, builders and brickies. It is a good story. New private investment fell 1.2 per cent, to be four per cent lower for the year. This is essentially the massive investment in the mining construction boom coming off as new investment needs to emerge in the non-mining side of the economy. We are seeing green shoots in this regard. It is hugely important because the non-mining side of the economy is 90 per cent of GDP and 98 per cent of employment in Australia. So we want to see that transition occur.

The question will be how quickly mining investment comes off and how quickly new investment in the non-mining side of the economy continues. But, unquestionably—and this is the difference, you have to look through the figures rather than get too excited about the headline—export volumes in the last quarter were exceptional. One of the reasons for that is, thankfully, we did not have any cyclone activity during the March quarter which meant that the miners were able to get the volume out the door, and they dug deep into inventories and that should recover. But the fact is mining volume was exceptional in this quarter.

The net result is that it is the highest percentage increase since September 2000. As a result, we have the smallest current account deficit as a share of GDP since March 1980. I was 14 years of age in 1980 and the member for Longman was 10 years away from being born. So you see, the key is jobs. I remember this Leader of the Opposition standing at the dispatch box railing against the government's activity on jobs. In the first four months of this year, 106,000 new jobs have been created, 79,000 full-time jobs created. So we are on track, let our budget be on track.