Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (14:07): My question is to the Treasurer. How does the Albanese Labor government's responsible budget help ease cost-of-living pressures? And what approaches were rejected?
Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:08): Thanks to the wonderful member for Gilmore for her question and for all her work in our team and on behalf of her community. We on this side of the House know that a lot of Australians are under pressure, and, because of the budget last night, more help is on the way. This is a responsible budget which is all about easing cost-of-living pressures, fighting inflation and investing in the future of our people and their economy.
The cost-of-living relief in the budget is both substantial and responsible. There is a tax cut in the budget for every Australian taxpayer. There is energy bill relief in the budget for every Australian household. There is a second round of Commonwealth rent assistance in the budget as well, because we know that renters are under pressure. And there are billions of dollars set aside in the budget to make medicines cheaper for our people, particularly for our concession card holders. And there are other measures in the budget as well—$7.8 billion in cost-of-living relief, in addition to a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer.
As I said, that cost-of-living relief is substantial, but it's also responsible. One of the defining features of this Albanese Labor government and the budget we handed down from this dispatch box last night is responsible economic management, which has helped us to clean up the mess that those opposite left behind in the budget. That's how we are delivering a second surplus, which would mean the first back-to-back surpluses in almost two decades. That's how we're finding savings. That's how we're paying down debt. That's how we're avoiding interest cost on the Liberal debt that we inherited from those opposite. We're getting the budget in much better nick, not instead of helping people doing it tough but as well as helping people doing it tough. That's what we were able to do last night—get the budget in better nick—and provide cost-of-living relief for people at the same time as we invest in the future. This is a key reason we have turned the inflation from those opposite that had a six in front of it into an inflation with a three in front of it.
But it's not mission accomplished. We know that people are still under pressure, and that's why people under pressure were the defining influence on the budget that we handed down last night. Inflation is still the No. 1 near-term concern that we have in the economy, and that's why the budget is so responsible. That's why the budget is so attentive to cost-of-living pressures that people are under, and we found a way to provide that cost-of-living relief at the same time as we serve our intergenerational responsibilities to build the next generation of prosperity.
