Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

LBANESE (—) (): I thank the member for her question and also for using the Leader of the Opposition's favourite phrase. What is it? 'It's going to make a bad situation worse.' He acknowledges that after 10 years in office we inherited a bad situation. That's the starting point! I thought I heard the Leader of the Opposition use that phrase, and it's the question here. How on earth, having sat in the cabinet for three terms, do you become Leader of the Opposition and say, 'Gee, it's a bad situation Australia's in!'

The member is right: we did inherit a bad situation. What we inherited was a government that didn't have an economic plan for the nation or an energy plan—they had 22 energy policies and didn't deliver any. We inherited a situation where inflation was rising. Interest rates started to increase under them. They didn't have a plan to deal with skills development—during the pandemic they told everyone to leave the country and then wondered why they inherited skill shortages when the economy opened up again. All of these problems we have inherited.

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