House debates Questions without Notice

Economy

Thursday, 5 March 2026 House of Representatives

Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition

2:05 pm

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that, according to yesterday's data, since 2022 the only growth in the economy has been due to immigration and Australians working harder for less?

Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

Order! We don't need commentary before someone begins an answer.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

2:06 pm

I thank the member for his question. Yesterday the national accounts showed that the Australian economy was growing at its fastest rate in almost three years, faster than every member of the G7. On a day when the national accounts showed household incomes and living standards are going up, the opposition was talking Australia down, as they do. They only have two settings—tearing each other down or talking Australia down. Those are their two settings. When the gender pay gap reached a record low, none of the blokes over there gave it a mention. When the bulk-billing rate saw its biggest jump in 20 years—crickets, nothing whatsoever. When we passed 200—

David Littleproud

David Littleproud Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture

What about your record?

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

This is our record. If you yelled less and listened more—

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

The shadow minister will state his point of order.

Dan Tehan

Dan Tehan Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction

It goes to relevance—

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

Resume your seat.

I'm not going to entertain long debates when it comes to relevance. You simply state the point of order on relevance without extra commentary. The Prime Minister was asked directly by the person two seats down from you—'talk about your record'—as an interjection. If he's talking about his record because the Leader of the Nationals just asked him to talk about his record—

Well, you didn't say that either. Anyway, we're going to do this to make sure the Prime Minister is being directly relevant to the question that he was asked. The temperature is way too hot already. Things are going to be different today. The question was asked, and now the Prime Minister is answering the question.

Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

I was talking about the national accounts, and I was also talking about our record, things that I was asked about. The truth is that yesterday's national accounts did show that the economy was growing at its fastest rate in almost three years. It did show that it was growing faster than every single member of the G7, all those advanced economies. Those opposite have never been more upset than when Australia is going forward. They think they get to go forward if Australia goes backwards, which is why the shadow Treasurer even puts money on it.

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick

Milton Dick Speaker

Order! The member for Herbert will leave the chamber under 94(a).

The member for Herbert then left the chamber.

Interjecting seven times in one question is unacceptable. We're not having a wall of noise today. I want to set the rules crystal clear so everybody knows how the chamber will be operating today and every other day.