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

You might complain about the fact that in the context of global economic conditions, with the worst terms of trade in about 50 years, the economy is not growing more strongly. But let me tell you that it is growing more strongly than it would have had you stayed in government. If we had not taken all of that Labor lead out of our saddlebags, if we had not got rid of your disastrous mining tax, if we had not got rid of your disastrous carbon tax, which you want to bring back—the turbo charge—if we had not gone out to reduce red tape costs for business by $2 billion a year, if we had not pursued an ambitious free trade agenda helping our exporting businesses get better access to the key markets in our region—

An opposition senator interjecting—

Why are we not growing more strongly I have been asked by way of interjection. Well, do you know what? Australia continues to grow where other commodity-based economies are in recession. If you look at the situation in Canada and Brazil, they are in recession. Australia continues to grow and to a large degree that is because we have been working to reduce costs in the economy for business. That is because we have been working to improve our competitiveness and our productivity and to ensure that we get our budget spending back under control and back on a more sustainable trajectory for the future. We inherited a disastrous trajectory from Labor. We are working to fix your mess. Of course, more than 13 times as many jobs have been created this year—(Time expired)