Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

To compare what happened here to what happened in the rest of the world in the December quarter, just consider the following numbers. Japan contracted by a staggering 3.3 per cent, its largest contraction since 1974. The European and UK economies contracted by 1.5 per cent, their sharpest quarterly contraction since the early 1980s. The US economy contracted by 1.6 per cent, its worst performance since 1982.

The most recent national accounts figures show that our economy has performed better than each of the G7 economies. Of course, we have other strengths. We have one of the strongest financial systems in the world and it has weathered the global financial crisis. It is true that with our Economic Security Strategy in October (Time expired)