Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Moreton for that question. It's an honour to serve the southern suburbs of Brisbane with the member for Moreton as we try to get our communities and our country through what is a difficult period for the national economy. This side of the House is confident that Australia and Australians can weather the storm that we are going through right now when it comes to this combination of economic conditions. But that begins with acknowledging the particular combination of challenges that we now confront that present themselves to us, and that begins, of course, with taking the Australian people into our confidence about what is happening in their economy right now, what it means for them and what this side of the House has begun to do about it. The statement and the updated forecasts that I provided the Australian people through their parliament today were honest and upfront about that combination of challenges. We do have high and rising inflation. We do have rising interest rates. That, combined with the impact of the slowdown in the global economy, is slowing our own economy, and that will have implications for unemployment as well.

So, our economic situation is confronting. Our economy is growing, but so are the challenges to that economy. That's why the economic plan that the now Prime Minister, the now finance minister and I took to the Australian people is now more important than ever. It has at least three parts. The first part is to provide responsible long-term cost-of-living relief to people who are doing it tough, particularly when it comes to areas like child care and medicines and getting wages moving again, particularly for the lowest paid in our community. The second part is to make sure we are growing our economy the right way and making it more resilient by investing in skills, investing in cleaner and cheaper and more-reliable energy, investing in a future made in Australia—all of those important elements of our plan. The third part is to deal with the legacy of rorts and waste, which has given us a budget that is heaving with a trillion dollars in Liberal Party debt and no way near enough to show for that generational debt, without a generational dividend.

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