Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Repeating something that is wrong again and again doesn't make it come true. So let me just say again that real wages growth today is stronger than it was under the Labor Party. Let me tell you something else: in the last quarter, the disposable income of Australians increased by 2½ per cent. That's more than five per cent over the last year, the highest for many, many years. Under our government, the economy is growing more strongly than it would have if the Australian people had chosen $387 billion in higher taxes instead.

Our economy in Australia continues to grow. More than 1.4 million new jobs have been created during our period in government. Employment growth consistently is stronger than the long-term average, and that means more Australians are in work than ever before, more Australians are paying lower personal income tax and the proportion of working-age Australians on welfare is at a 30-year low. Our economy continues to grows while a number of other economies are actually shrinking. We're maintaining a AAA rated economy. The Labor Party, of course, seems to completely ignore the fact that there are obvious global economic headwinds. They completely ignore that there are obvious challenges in our domestic economy, principally related to the absolutely devastating drought in large parts of Australia. The Labor Party thinks that that doesn't matter. Our economy, in all of the circumstances, is performing quite well. It's performing much better than it would have if the Australian people had chosen a change of government at the last election.