Today’s news that capital expenditure has gone backwards is further proof of an economy which is floundering on the Morrison Government’s watch.

Private new capital expenditure fell by 0.5 per cent in the June quarter, to be one per cent lower over the last year.

This means the level of capital expenditure is more than 30 per cent lower than when the Liberals first came to office in 2013.

The Treasurer needs to realise that just telling business to invest more is not an economic plan. His claims that the fundamentals of our economy are strong are not backed up by this new data.

The Government must take responsibility for the slowest economic growth in a decade, stagnant wages, record household debt, high underemployment, and declining living standards.

When Australians need and expect a plan from the Morrison Government to get the economy going again all they get instead is finger-pointing and blame-shifting.

It is time that the Government began thinking seriously about what steps it can take to responsibly stimulate the struggling economy.

Everyone from Labor to the Reserve Bank has offered responsible stimulus suggestions to the Government – all have been ignored.

The Liberals’ lack of an economic plan is leaving the Australian economy dangerously and unnecessarily exposed to turbulence in the global economy.

THURSDAY, 29 AUGUST 2019