A prominent businessman has weighed into the citizenship debacle hanging over federal politics, saying it is causing unnecessary angst among consumers.
Outgoing Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder says Stephen Parry's resignation as Senate president after confirmation he held British citizenship will have left people scratching their heads, coming just days after the High Court kick-out five parliamentarians.
"Yesterday was almost the straw that broke the camel's back," Mr Goyder told the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday.
"To have someone in a position of real authority in the country sit on information, and even sit on it from the prime minister and then hope that bad news went away ... bad news never goes away, just deal with it."
The citizenship saga was diminishing trust in the system and leaving consumers worried about political instability, he said.
"I don't think people are just going to unleash themselves in the near term and go spending madly," he said.
Mr Goyder would know better than most about consumer behaviour, having been boss of the Perth-based conglomerate that controls Coles, Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks for the past 12 years.
However, it is not all doom and gloom.
The pick-up in economic growth around the world was really good news for Australia and helpful for its exporters, Mr Goyder said.
"Australia has been a bit of an island in every sense of the word in terms of our economic growth profile over the last 26 years," he said, referring to the economy's period of uninterrupted growth.
Other company directors are equally confident about Australia's economic outlook.
The Australian Institute of Company Directors' six-monthly director sentiment index is at its highest level in at least seven years.
Such optimism also expands to the outlooks for the US and European economies.
Almost three-in-five directors expect their businesses to expand over the coming year.
They're also optimistic about the wage growth outlook and anticipate a further decline in the jobless rate.
The positive results come at a time of the strongest employment results since 1994, institute chairman Elizabeth Proust noted.
"So the fact that directors are so confident about employment and wages growth over the coming 12 months suggests the economy may be turning a corner after a sustained period of flat wage growth and investment," she said.
New statistics released on Thursday were also positive for the next set of official figures growth statistics due in early December.
Monthly international trade showed a surplus of $1.7 billion in September, up from $873 million the previous month as exports grew three per cent.
Westpac senior economist Andrew Hanlan expects exports will have contributed 0.3 percentage points to economic growth in the September quarter.
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