Australia finally appears to be getting over the end of the mining boom as new figures showed the economy growing at its fastest pace in nearly two years.
The latest national accounts showed the economy expanding at a healthy three per cent in 2015.
"Australia has already passed most of the way through the greatest terms of trade shock in our history," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Australia China Business Council Networking Function in Canberra on Wednesday.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said it puts Australia well above the OECD average and comes despite global economic uncertainty and volatility.
It was even stronger than the Reserve Bank had been expecting, and suggests any thoughts of an interest cut can be cast aside for the time being.
"The great news of this story ... is the transition is occurring, it's not a promise, it's happening," Mr Morrison told reporters.
GDP expanded by 0.6 per cent in the final three months of the year after an upwardly revised 1.1 per cent increase in the September quarter.
The main contributions to growth were household consumption, housing construction, services exports and public investment.
They offset the continued decline in mining investment.
"Our growth performance ... is very encouraging and should be a pat on the back for every Australian who's been out there making this transition of our economy work," Mr Morrison said.
But it wasn't all good news for the treasurer as he puts together his first budget.
Income growth, as gauged by nominal GDP, remains subdued as a big decline in commodity prices puts downward pressure on wages, company profits and government revenue.
"It is why the economy feels weaker than the headline GDP numbers imply," Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief economist Michael Blythe said.
Nominal GDP grew by a modest 0.4 per cent in the December quarter and 1.9 per cent over the year.
During previous periods of fiscal consolidation when budgets were returned to surplus, nominal GDP growth averaged 5.7 per cent in the 1990s and 11.4 per cent in the 1980s.
"It is one of the major challenges of achieving our medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy," Mr Morrison said, who will hand down the budget on May 10.
The acceleration in growth overall coincided with the surprising strength in employment over the past year, which saw the jobless rate ease from 6.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent.
However, unemployment has since increased to six per cent.
ANZ head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett said the economy clearly finished 2015 on a strong note, but "we are not out of the woods yet".
"The unemployment rate remains elevated and further inroads are necessary before the RBA can sit back and feel as though its job is done," she said.
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