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

I thank the member for Robertson for her question and acknowledge that there are more than 10,000 businesses in the honourable member's electorate who are going to benefit from the immediate expensing provisions that are now available to them as a result of policies that we've supported on this side of the House. I had the welcome opportunity to join the member for Robertson in her electorate before these lockdowns, and I had the opportunity to meet with a young female apprentice electrician and hear how the government's wage subsidy is supporting her opportunities to get into training and to get a job.

Today we have the national account numbers. They show that the Australian economy is strong. They show that the Australian economy continues to grow. They show that the fundamentals of the Australian economy remain sound and that the Australian economy remains resilient in the face of the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression. In the June quarter, 29 days saw lockdowns in one part of the country or another, including across our four largest states, yet our economy still grew by 0.7 per cent, ahead of market expectations, and we have seen through-the-year growth of 9.6 per cent, strong through-the-year growth across our economy.

This growth was driven by an improvement in household consumption—up 1.1 per cent and more than 15 per cent through the year. And the tax relief we've provided to Australian households saw nearly $4 million go into households' pockets in the June quarter. We also saw dwelling investment, off the back of programs like HomeBuilder, up again, by more than 15 per cent through the year, with a strong pipeline of construction. We saw business investment, particularly in machinery and equipment, being very strong. Machinery and equipment investment was up by more than 22 per cent since last year's October budget. That's the fastest growth in machinery and equipment expenditure in nearly 20 years—off the back of our immediate expensing provisions. As the Deputy Prime Minister has said, farm GDP has been extremely strong—up by more than 40 per cent through the year as a result of a bumper winter harvest. So whether it is household consumption, dwelling investment, business investment, farm GDP or even public-sector final demand, which is government infrastructure across the states and territories, it is helping to create more and more jobs. So we can be hopeful, we can be confident, we can be optimistic about our future because the Australian economy and its fundamentals remain strong.