Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. I understand that he's talking about the cost of living, and it is true that a lot of Australians are doing it tough right now—particularly as a consequence of the largest economic shock since the Great Depression. But I can inform the member and, indeed, the House, that household disposable income is up 5.8 per cent since the start of the pandemic.

This is because we, as a government, have put around $300 billion of support into the economy—direct economic support for families and for businesses. In the budget this year I announced a number of other measures that go to the heart of the cost of living. Indeed, since the pandemic we have cut taxes by about $24 billion for Australians. But in the budget we had $9.7 billion in childcare support and we had $9 billion for an additional support for jobseekers, with the single largest increase since 1986. We had $9 billion for homelessness and for housing, with programs like HomeBuilder, and also Commonwealth Rent Assistance, which is so important.

These programs are supporting the economy and supporting households who, as the member points out, are doing it very tough. But we can only invest in these measures when we have a strong economy. I can tell the House that Australia is only one of nine countries in the world to have a AAA credit rating from the three leading credit-rating agencies. We know that, when we came to government, unemployment was at 5.7 per cent. Today it's 4.6 per cent, with unemployment having gone below five per cent for the first time in a decade.

I say to the honourable member: we, as a government, are committed to driving down taxes, to put more money into people's pockets and to try to ease the cost of living with the investments that we are making in the energy sector, which has seen energy prices come down by around 10 per cent, from their peak. So whether it's child care, housing, jobseeker support for those who are out of work or our energy investments, we are focused on driving down the cost of living for all Australians.

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