Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (14:45): My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government's responsible economic management right for the conditions we confront, and what approaches have the government rejected?
Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:45): I thank the wonderful member for her question. The two big influences on our economy are global uncertainty and cost-of-living pressures, and they are combining to slow our economy at the same time. Our economic plan anticipated this balance of risks and we are responding with cost-of-living relief, budget repair and investments to make our economy more resilient, as I said a moment ago. The extreme volatility we have seen in global markets in recent weeks is a real warning against complacency. Inflation is sticky and stubborn and more persistent than we would like. We are seeing that around the world, including in Europe, where inflation has just gone up again, and in the US and Canada, where it zigged and zagged on the way down.
There is no shortage of challenges in our economy, but we have made some welcome progress in the last two years, as the Prime Minister said a moment ago. Inflation has halved on our watch; wages growth has doubled; almost a million jobs have been created, which is a record; there are tax cuts for every taxpayer; and, despite all of that—tax cuts and energy relief—we have still turned two big Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses. Those opposite do not want anyone in Australia to remember that, when we came to office, inflation had a six in front of it—and now it has a three in front of it. Rates were already rising when we came to office, wages were stagnant, the deficits were much bigger and the budget was weighed down by rorts, waste and debt—and the Shadow Treasurer was the poster child for all of that. That is their record.
The Shadow Treasurer, as I said a moment ago, was disappointed and embarrassed last week because he desperately wanted interest rates to go up and they did not. He desperately wanted underlying inflation to go up the week before and instead it went down. It was the same with the quarterly read on homegrown non-tradable inflation. As I said, most people in Australia are cheering for the interest rates and for the cost-of-living pressures to be alleviated in the coming months. The Shadow Treasurer wants life to get harder for people.
That's because he does not want anyone to say, 'Hang on a minute, Shadow Treasurer; you say there should be $315 billion worth of cuts, but what are they? What does it mean for pensions and indexation? What does it mean for Medicare? What does it mean for the broader economy?' He still cannot tell us why they opposed tax cuts for every taxpayer or energy bill relief and how they will roll back the cost-of-living help. He still cannot tell us how much the nuclear reactors will cost or how he will pay to reinstate the old stage three tax cuts.
We acknowledge that people are doing it tough. We are helping where we can in the most responsible way at the same time as we deliver these surpluses. If they had their way, inflation would be higher, interest rates would be higher, wages would be lower and there would be absolutely no help for people doing it tough.
