Mrs DRAPER (2:24 PM) —My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer advise the House of the results of recent domestic and international surveys of sentiment towards the Australian economy? What do these surveys indicate about the strength of the Australian economy?

Mr COSTELLO (Treasurer) —I thank the honourable member for Makin for her question and for her interest in the national economy. I can report to her that both international and domestic surveys show that the Australian economy has strong momentum. In fact, this week's Economist magazine, which has a regular poll of forecasters, has Australia forecast as having the strongest growth rate of any of the major industrialised countries through the course of 2002, at 3.4 per cent. I am sure the Labor Party will welcome strong prognostications of growth in Australia. The second highest is Britain at 1.9 per cent, so Australia is just a little under double the second highest growth rate forecast for 2002. In 2003, Australia is again forecast to have the highest growth of any of the country forecasts in the Economist poll. I think all Australians would welcome that news, especially on this side of the House. That comes on top of a growth rate of 4.1 per cent in 2001, which was the highest of any of the industrialised countries and indeed 10 times the average of the OECD. So the outcome for 2001 was the highest, the forecast for 2002 was the strongest and the forecast for 2003 was the strongest.

This week we had the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey, which rose to a level of 116, the fifth consecutive rise since the drop in confidence on the back of September 11; we had the ACCI-Westpac survey of industrial trends showing a strengthening of business activity; and we had the National Australia Bank monthly business survey showing business conditions increasing for February. So I think the good news is that notwithstanding an international recession—a recession in the United States, a third recession in Japan in a decade, a recession in Singapore, a recession in Taiwan, a recession in Germany and a weakness in Europe—the Australian economy continues to perform strongly.

Members of this House will recall that not everybody forecast that that would be the case in 2001. There were a lot of people in 2001 gleefully anticipating a recession in the Australian economy—and none more so than the member for Hotham, who took great delight in attempting to mislead the Australian public. Perhaps I will just finish by referring him to the advice that was given by the Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, in the Financial Review in January. As far as I am aware, Mr Carr is the only Labor leader who has an economic policy, which he put out in January of 2002, urging Mr Crean and others to adopt. He made this observation when he did so:

The electorate was right about that, and I can say that, since the November election until now, the Labor Party has not come up with a single economic policy. It is now six years bereft of any economic policy or any thinking, and it shows no signs of improving. Can I recommend that you take the advice of Premier Carr. The electorate did hesitate to vote for Labor because it knows that Labor has no credentials on economic management. If Labor were to try and get some, I urge you to come out and support the government in its economic policy and recognise the advantages that that has brought in Australian growth rates.