Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Why does the Treasurer pretend that weakness in the economy is entirely due to the bushfires and coronavirus, when last year the Reserve Bank had already cut interest rates three times to well below GFC levels?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm glad the member for Rankine raises the Reserve Bank, because it was the Governor of the Reserve Bank who said the Australian economy had reached a gentle turning point. It was the Governor of the Reserve Bank who said Australians could rightly be confident about their economic future. It is only those opposite, including the member for Rankin, who continually talk down the Australian economy. The facts are these: in December last year unemployment fell to 5.1 per cent. In December last year retail trade volumes had their biggest jump in two years. In the September quarter household disposable income had its biggest jump in more than a decade on the back of our tax cuts.

Under the coalition we've passed over $300 billion of tax cuts. We've created more than 1½ million new jobs. We've seen the first current account surplus in more than 40 years. We've seen the lowest welfare dependency in 30 years. We've seen the first balanced budget in 11 years. Only the coalition can be trusted to create more jobs and to lower taxes.