Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to advise the Senate that the IMF's recent World Economic Outlook confirms that Australia's economic outlook remains positive, underpinned by our strong fundamentals. It confirms that the Australian economy is expected to grow faster than all major advanced economies next year despite increased global instability. The IMF has issued a stark warning about the outlook for the global economy, something we should all be mindful of, because global activity has weakened and downside risks are intensifying. Despite this, the IMF has given a ringing endorsement of the Australian economy—an economy that can look forward to faster growth than any other major advanced economy, an economy located in the part of the world which is growing, an economy with relatively low unemployment, an economy where we have seen 730,000 jobs created since Labor came to government, an economy with strong public finances, an economy with a $430 billion investment pipeline coming into our economy and a clear plan to return to surplus in 2012-13. This is a resounding endorsement of the economic management of this government.