Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for his question about today’s CPI data, because it is very important. I think it is important because it shows that inflation is moderating. Underlying inflation at 2.4 per cent in the figures today is now at its lowest level in five years. I would have thought those opposite might have had something positive to say about that. CPI inflation for the quarter was 0.7 per cent and over the year it was 2.8 per cent, and this is down from 3.1 per cent.

The government is not complacent about these figures. We are not complacent about them at all. We do have a strong economy and, as I was explaining to the House yesterday, very strong job creation. We are now in mining boom mark 2 and that does put a very big obligation on the government to invest in extra capacity in the economy, and no area could be more important here than superfast broadband to lift our productivity, to lift our economic capacity. But it is not just that—it is the investment in the roads and the rail and the ports. It is that investment in capacity which is the best way to secure growth with lower inflation. That is very, very important. We do acknowledge that utility prices have risen substantially in recent times. That has been something that the Prime Minister has addressed at length, firstly in her speech to the Australian Industry Group the other night and again today in the House.

As the Prime Minister has explained, that is why we have put in place three tranches of tax cuts over three years, recognising that families are under financial pressure. It is why we put substantial increases into the education childcare cash rebate. It is why we are putting in place the education tax refund. It is why we are supplying additional family payments to families with teenage children. We are doing all of those things. But what we must do over time if we are to achieve sustainable growth with lower inflation is get the economic fundamentals right. There is simply no other alternative and that is why it is so disappointing to see that the economic consensus that we have had in this country has been fractured by those opposite.

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