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

To explain it to the shadow Treasurer, one of the reasons we have higher interest rates, which began before the election, is we have an inflation challenge in our economy, which we've acknowledged, and we've got a plan to address it. One of the reasons we've got that inflation challenge is the combination of the member for Hume's incompetence and President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine, which means we've got high and rising energy prices. The point I'm making about that is: when the parliament was given the opportunity to look after Australians facing high energy prices as part of this inflation challenge which is pushing up interest rates, those opposite were nowhere to be found. The difference between this side of the House and that side of the House is we see cost-of-living pressures impacting on Australians, impacting on small business and impacting on our economy, and we do something about it. Those opposite just vote against it. If they had their way, we'd have another decade of wage suppression and wage stagnation and ordinary working people copping it in the neck. We understand this inflation problem in our economy. We understand the pressure that rising interest rates put on Australian families and the Australian economy more broadly. We've got a plan to deal with it, and part of that means cleaning up the mess that the member for Hume left us.

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