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

and we're not prepared to do that. We've been upfront about the future of the fuel excise relief that will come off on Wednesday night for all the reasons we've been saying since before the election. It's consistent with the legislation that those opposite proposed and passed through this House. When people hear those opposite playing politics with that petrol excise relief, they understand that it's those opposite who legislated it to finish on Wednesday night.

When it comes to the broader costs of living, you'd think that, after a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and deliberate wage suppression, those opposite would be too ashamed of themselves to come in here and talk about the cost of living. If it hadn't been for a government that said that a deliberate design feature of their economic policy was to keep wages low, then Australians would find it easier to deal with these costs of living, which are skyrocketing as a consequence of some international factors as well as some domestic factors. What we've said since the election, before the election and during the election campaign itself is that we will provide responsible cost-of-living relief. We'll make child care cheaper, we'll make medicines cheaper, we'll make TAFE fees cheaper, and we'll get wages moving again after that wasted decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression. The difference between this side of the House is that we will always do what's right for working people in this country who are dealing with these cost-of-living pressures. Those opposite spent a decade making people's lives harder by going after their wages and working conditions.

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