Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

Australian families working or otherwise have benefited enormously from the extraordinary economic performance of this country under the Howard-Costello management of our economy. It is remarkable that after 16 years of continuous growth, 11½ years of those under us, we have the strongest economy that this country has ever seen.

We have unemployment at the record low of 4.3 per cent, a number that the Labor Party could only dream about. The party that professes to represent the workers put millions of people out of work and had one of the worst recessions this country has ever seen. The Australian people are benefiting from us keeping inflation low at 2½ per cent on average with real wages rising throughout our period in government. It is extraordinary that under your government, through you, Mr President, real wages effectively never rose in 13 years. You should be ashamed of your record in office.