Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

What I would say to Senator Dastyari is that he should have done his own research before accepting a question from his tactics committee, because the nominal growth rate in 2014-15 actually turned out to be stronger than what was anticipated in our budget. If you were going to pick on one example, that was actually a bad example to pick on. What I can confirm is that the Australian economy this year has had one of the strongest growth rates in the developed world. As the acting Leader of the Government in the Senate has said in his answer, our employment growth rate is stronger than any of the G7 economies; it is stronger than the UK; it is stronger than the US. We are performing well, given that we are facing the biggest fall in our terms of trade in 50 years. We have iron ore exports representing more than 20 per cent of our national export income going from a price of $180 a tonne to the fifties right now—and you think it is not going to have an effect on the economy. Hello! Hello! It is having an effect. And, given all of that, the Australian economy is actually performing very well.