Wednesday's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures show an economy travelling at its fastest pace in 3.5 years. So with such strong headline numbers, why isn't everyone celebrating?

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures have shown Australia's economy grew 1.1 per cent in the first quarter, and 3.1 per cent over the past year, its fastest quarterly growth since March 2012.

The solid performance was driven by a big surge in Australia's exports.

This sounds like good news, so why isn't everyone celebrating?

Let's say, for example, you own a coffee shop.

What would you rather know? How many coffees you were churning out every three months, or how much you were making from those coffees?

Pretty easy question right? You want to know how much money you're making.

Well the thing is, the official GDP number measures the nation's economic output, or how much stuff the economy's churning out — not how much money we're making.

Australia's national income in decline

The other measure, the nation's income (your hip-pocket), is actually going backwards.

ABS figures show that during the March quarter, trend Real net national disposable income was flat at 0.0 per cent.

Through the year Real net national disposable income actually fell 1.1 per cent.

AlphaBeta's chief economic advisor, Andrew Charlton, says it all depends on how you look at the economy.

"If you look at the economy through a production lens, then everything's going fine," Mr Charlton said.

"If you look at the income that Australians earn from that output, then things are much tougher."

So what exactly does Mr Charlton mean by 'tougher'?

One measure economists use is how much more we take home every year in our pay packets. Economists call it wages growth.

Unfortunately the figure is dismal, with wages currently growing at the slowest pace in around two decades.

So if we're no better off, what's the point of the GDP?

"I'd argue that it's never been less relevant than it is today," Mr Charlton said.

"The mining boom delivered an Australia with an enormous production platform, and lots of new investment to stimulate new production, but it took away a lot of the resources for Australians to gain future income.

"Now we're left with a legacy of declining commodity prices, large dividends to pay to foreign shareholders, and a hefty bill to replace that capital stock."

But it's not all doom and gloom.

Without the GDP measure we wouldn't know that Australia is still pumping out all manner of exports at a breakneck speed.

In fact net exports — the difference between what we took in as a nation and sent out overseas — contributed a large chunk to the latest GDP figure.

It's also clear that other parts of the economy are motoring along OK.

There were reasonable contributions to growth from financial services, and consumer spending.

Here's where it gets tricky

Some economists argue that it's the housing booms in Sydney and Melbourne that are underwriting the non-mining sectors of the economy, and they say that can't last.

Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access economics puts it really simply. He just argues there's a real risk living standards, on average, will continue to fall.

"The best measure of living standards in Australia peaked when China, and coal and iron ore prices peaked back in 2011," Mr Richardson said.

However he said living standards have fallen another 2.6 per cent in the last year.

Mr Richardson is pointing the responsibility for achieving more sustainable economic growth squarely at Canberra.

"There is a challenge in these figures today. They are genuinely lovely figures, but if Australia of the future is to be a high-income country, to some extent it depends on our politicians having courage," he said.

"[That means] putting before us stuff that maybe painful but will ultimately result in a series of gains."

He suggested the Coalition was doing that by offering company tax cuts, and Labor was contributing by promising to invest in education.

However Mr Richards said the big question voters should ask was, 'is that enough'?

"You want higher living standards in Australia, but it's not clear to me that either side of politics is yet promising a platform that contains enough reform pain to get us there," he said.