Trish Cook (Bullwinkel, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Treasurer. What do today's national accounts tell us about our economy?

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

Thanks to the new member for Bullwinkel for her important question and for all of her work in this place already as a new member of parliament focused on the most important issues. The numbers we got today in the national accounts were very encouraging, and they were very welcome. The numbers came in better than what almost all economists were expecting today. We saw growth in the quarter of 0.6. We saw through-the-year growth of 1.8. That beat expectations on both fronts, and that's a very good thing. Our economy is gathering pace and it's gathering momentum. We have seen in the data released today for the June quarter a very welcome and a substantial pick-up in growth in our economy, and that's important.

The big story in the national accounts today was the pick-up and the recovery in the private sector in particular, and this is the recovery in the private sector that we've been planning for and preparing for and, frankly, hoping for. To see the private sector make the contribution to growth in the numbers today again was very welcome. The reason why the private sector is recovering, the reason why that's feeding through to the biggest contributor to growth in the quarter, which was consumption, is that this government has worked diligently every single day to lift wages and lift incomes in our economy. That's what's driving the improvement in growth in the numbers that were released today. Consumption is recovering in our economy because incomes are recovering in our economy.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

And I can hear them chirping away. They should chirp up and say that, when we came to office, real wages were falling, living standards were falling, per person incomes were falling, inflation was rising and interest rates were already going up, and we have been turning all of that around. The reason incomes are growing in our economy—and living standards, too—is our tax cuts and our wage rises, combined with the Reserve Bank's three interest rate cuts in six months. Because of our efforts, the wages share of national income is now 54 per cent. When we came to office the wages share of national income was less than half. Now it's 54 per cent. That's not accidental. That is deliberate. We have got in our economy now the equal-fastest through-the-year economic growth compared with any major advanced economy, and we've got much faster employment growth than any major advanced economy. These are very welcome, encouraging numbers. They show the progress that we've made together. They show that we've been delivering on all of the things we identified as the government's priorities, but we know there is still more work to do.