House debates Questions without Notice

Economy

Thursday, 5 December 2019 House of Representatives

Jim Chalmers

Jim Chalmers Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer

2:31 pm

My question is to the Prime Minister. This year the Prime Minister pledged to 'build an even stronger economy', but that hasn't happened, has it, Prime Minister? Don't we have a weakening economy, reduced investment, flat wages and rising unemployment?

Josh Frydenberg

Josh Frydenberg Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer

2:32 pm

The shadow Treasurer referred to investment. I can confirm that, under the coalition, investment outside the mining sector has increased by 34 per cent since we've come to office, or over five per cent per year. Under the Labor Party, investment outside the mining sector fell by 10 per cent during their time in office, including an 8.5 per cent fall in their last year. As I said, when we came to government, unemployment was 5.7 per cent. Today it's 5.3 per cent, and more than 1.4 million jobs have been created.

Don't look at what Labor says, look at what Labor does. When it comes to delivering lower taxes and more jobs, only the coalition can deliver that to the Australian people.