Topics: Tropical Cyclone Alfred; National Accounts data; insurance

E&OE

ANGUS TAYLOR:

Well, first I'd like to make a couple of remarks about Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Our thoughts and prayers are with those – our fellow Australians in south east Queensland and northern New South Wales that face Alfred. People should take advice regarding this weather event very seriously. Some areas of south east Queensland and northern New South Wales that wouldn't normally be inundated may well experience a significant event in the coming days, so we need to make sure we listen to advice, we listen to updates from the authorities, people take preparations in their own houses, in their premises on business sites, and making sure they have the supplies that they need to get through what could be a tough time. As I say, we hope and pray it won't be but this is a tough time for people, I know, in that part of Australia, and our thoughts are with them.

National Accounts data just out a couple of minutes ago, not long ago, and the data confirms the grim trends in our economy that continue on unabated. We've had a Treasurer out in the last little while patting himself on the back and telling Australians how good they've got it, but this just tells us how out of touch this Treasurer is and how out of his depth he is when it comes to the economy. The truth is, Australians continue to face a very tough set of circumstances, and let me highlight a number of those circumstances that are very clear in this data. The only thing driving our economy right now is population growth, and people working extra hours. Immigration in particular, and people working harder to make ends meet is the only source of growth in the economy, and that is not a strong economy. That is not an economy which supports aspiration. That is not an economy that ensures that hard working Australians can get ahead. If you look at the numbers, what you see there is that population growth has supported 0.5% of GDP, extra hours 0.2%, and that's why what we see is labour productivity, output per hour worked is going backwards. Labour productivity continues to be disastrous in this country, and that means there's less money to pay for those goods and services that Australians are used to being able to buy. It's why they're having to work harder to make ends meet. It's why the purchasing power of their incomes has gone down so disastrously since Labor came to power. Indeed, our standard of living is down almost 8% since Labor came to power and what's very clear from this data is that the journey back to where Australians’ standard of living was when Labor came to power is a long, long one. We know from the government's own data that we won't get back there until 2030. Deloitte Access, again, says 2030. The Reserve Bank says it will take until 2031 but whichever way you look at it, we have many years without change, where it's going to take … where people will be backwards from where they were when Labor came to power. This is economically disastrous for hard working Australians.

We also see in the data that households and businesses remain in a per capita recession and in particular, what we see is household consumption is lagging behind population growth, so the average household is having to continue to cut back. We continue to see the private sector being crowded out by rapid growth in government spending. This is not a strong economy. This is not an economy which will lead to prosperity. This is not an economy which will support aspiration and hard-working Australians, whether they're in small businesses, whether they're working for small businesses or larger businesses. This is not an economy that's going to support younger Australians getting ahead to buy a home, Australians who want to build a business, Australians who want to be able to support their families. This is not the economy that's going to achieve those outcomes.

Now I want to make a couple of comments about a focus in the media in the last couple of hours on competition policy and the insurance industry. The Coalition will always take action against anti-competitive behavior. That is why we'll take to the election a significant change to our consumer competition legislation to ensure that supermarkets and hardware sectors do the right thing by their customers. If they act in an anti-competitive way, if they misuse market power in their markets, then they will be subject, under a Coalition Government, to the prospect of divestment as part of a package of measures that can be taken to ensure that they support and do the right thing by their customers. Now we expect all industries to act in a pro-competitive way, and that includes the insurance industry. That includes the insurance industry. If we see evidence of anti-competitive behavior, then we will take appropriate action, and we haven't been frightened to do that. When we're in government, and also, since we've been in opposition, we will take action against anti-competitive behavior. We've done it in the past, and we will continue to do it and at a time like this, can I say, where the insurance industry may be playing a more important role in Australia if the worst happens, and we all hope it doesn't with Cyclone Alfred, then we expect the insurance industry to do the right thing by Australians. We expect to have a competitive insurance industry that always does the right thing by its customers, and if they don't, we will take action to ensure that we get the right outcomes for all Australians. Thank you very much.

ENDS.