In particular, if applied sensibly, it will enable the economy’s average growth rate to reflect its potential growth rate and therefore deliver the maximum sustainable increase in employment and living standards. We have already seen nine years of expansion with growth averaging over 4%, a considerably longer expansion than we were able to achieve in the 1970s and 1980s.
And there is every prospect that the expansion will continue for a good deal longer. For the first time in my working life, Australia in the 1990s has come near the top of the decade growth rates among developed countries. We grew faster than the United States, and only Ireland, among developed countries, recorded faster growth.