Topics: National Accounts, NSW Liberal Party

E&OE

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, good morning. It's very clear from the national accounts numbers that have just come out that the government's failures are coming home to roost. The government's economic failures are coming home to roost. This is the sixth consecutive quarter now of a household recession, the sixth consecutive quarter of negative GDP per capita. That's 18 months our economy has been in a household recession.

To add to that, what we see in this quarter is that the private sector is going backwards. The private sector has gone backwards in the last quarter. We see that on the ground, with businesses right across this great country suffering from this government's wrong decisions and wrong priorities.

That sixth consecutive quarter of the household recession is the longest since the data began 50 years ago. We have not seen this since we kept records on GDP per capita, and since the early 1970s we have not seen a period where we've had 18 months of negative GDP per capita. It is an absolute disaster for this country. It is also clear that real disposable incomes, the standard of living of the households in Australia, continues to go backwards. It has fallen almost 9% now, since Labor came to power. That's an extraordinary situation. Australians have 9% less ability to buy things than was true when Labor came to power, which is an extraordinary collapse in their living standards. Again, unprecedented.

What is also clear is that Australian households are really suffering as they crack open the piggy bank. Savings have almost disappeared. For Australian families, they've had to dig deep into their savings to get by. They're continuing to work extra hours to get by, and it's very clear now that they're having to change their spending decisions in dramatic ways to get by, to get through the day, to get through the week. Now, Australia is absolutely at the back of the pack in economic terms when compared to other countries around the world. Core inflation in Australia has not dropped since January this year, and it has dropped in every other major advanced country in the world. Our core inflation is stuck. It's not coming down. And again, this government's wrong decisions and wrong priorities have led to that outcome. Our core inflation also higher than any of those other countries, higher than any of those other countries.

Now, there was a number in the national accounts which will send shivers down the spine of the RBA, and that was a collapse of labour productivity in the last quarter of 0.8%. You simply can't get back to a strong, low inflation economy without strong productivity growth, and it absolutely collapsed in the last quarter. So as I say, over two years since Labor came to power. Two years of wrong priorities, two years of wrong decisions, two years of economic mismanagement, two years of blame shifting, two years of finger pointing and two years of drift.

Just this week, we see the Treasurer fighting everybody and everything, except his homegrown inflation. He's fighting the Productivity Commission. He's fighting the Reserve Bank. He's fighting his own mentor, Paul Keating. He's fighting the Leader of the Opposition. Today, he's fighting John Howard. He's fighting the laws of economics. But what he's not fighting is his homegrown inflation, this slow economy which is causing such suffering right across Australia. Now, it's also clear from these numbers that the government is hitting the accelerator at the same time as the Reserve Bank is hitting the brake, and that is how you wreck the engine. That is exactly what's going on right now.

Now, he's complaining about the Reserve Bank, but he has far more levers to get us back to a low inflation, strong economy than the Reserve Bank will ever have. They have one lever, which is interest rates. He can use fiscal policy, the government can use energy policy, immigration policy, approvals, and yet they're getting all of those things wrong.

There is a better alternative. Going back to basics, making sure that the government lives within its means, that contains its spending growth, that the government focuses on securing our energy supplies, that we make sure that our immigration rate is in line with our housing growth. And in fact, we've seen new numbers here today on immigration, telling us that our overall population growth has got to 1.4 million since Labor came to power. And making sure that we get the approvals we need to get projects in place to drive productivity and drive the growth we need for a strong economy. Their recipe is the wrong recipe. There is a better way. We think there is a pathway to a strong, low inflation economy, but it's not the pathway this government is taking. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST:

Just on the topic of migration, various economists have come out saying that migration has spared Australia from a recession over the past few years. Can Australia afford to cut migration by up to 100,000?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, can I say we're in a household recession. The numbers that matter is the numbers that are felt by households and businesses. And households are in a recession, and GDP per person recession has been going now in this country for 18 months. We haven't seen that in the 50 years we've been keeping records on this. 50 years. So this is a real recession, and you can't pretend otherwise through an immigration rate which is way above what our housing supply can support. Australian households are suffering from a deep reduction, a savage reduction in their standard of living, and there is absolutely nothing this Treasurer can say that's going to change that. He pats himself on the back every day. Blames everybody else, he's into blame shifting, but the truth of the matter is his failed policies are leading to these outcomes.

JOURNALIST:

And just on another matter, are you concerned by the state division of the Liberal party in New South Wales heading into this next federal election?

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, we made an intervention. We made an intervention because it needed to be fixed, and that is all about two things. One is recognising that we need to have a strong New South Wales division as we go into the next election. And the second is because we owe it to our members and supporters to make sure the New South Wales division is strong, and that's why the intervention has been taken. Thank you very much.

ENDS.