Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

These guys have left us with a trillion dollars of debt and the worst decade for productivity in half a century. Despite occupying the opposition benches for 10 months, those opposite are still doing everything they can to protect their terrible and disgraceful legacy. After deliberately hiding power price increases from Australians before the election—a cover-up—they voted against direct energy bill relief for families and small businesses across our country. They voted against the National Reconstruction Fund, the fund that helps us rebuild our supply chains. They voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund, which ensures that we have a future supply of housing for vulnerable people in our community. And they voted, at every opportunity, against cleaner and cheaper energy. The coalition, whenever the opportunity has presented, has voted against Labor's efforts to clean up the mess.

But the Albanese Labor government are not letting the obstructionist vandalism of the Liberals stop us from getting on with the job. Whilst there are economic challenges thrust upon us from around the world, we remain optimistic about Australia's economic future. The first six months of the Albanese government saw the strongest jobs growth of any new government on record. The wage growth in that period was the strongest in nearly a decade. Unemployment is low and the prices of Australian exports are high. Amongst these positive signs, however, inflation remains the most significant challenge. Let's remember that this inflation challenge began under the Liberals. It is largely due to pressures beyond the control of any single Australian government: war in Europe, collapsing international supply chains, climate change and exacerbated weather disasters. But, through their mismanagement of the budget and the economy, the Liberals poured fuel on the inflation fire. Their irresponsible and profligate spending of Australian taxpayers' money supercharged the inflation problem and drove the Reserve Bank to begin dealing with the challenge through interest rate rises. Of course, those interest rate rises, as those opposite sometimes like to forget, began under their watch as well.

Australians understand that we, the Labor government, didn't create these challenges, but they elected us to take responsibility for addressing them, and we are. The Albanese government has a three-point plan for addressing the inflation challenge in our economy. It's about relief, repair and restraint. We're providing responsible cost-of-living relief where it delivers an economic dividend without adding to inflation, including through cheaper medicines, direct energy bill relief and cheaper child care for families, including the 7,000 in my electorate of Hawke. In the last 10 months we've seen that, with a focus on relief, repair and restraint, our government's plan to combat the economic challenges left behind by the Liberals opposite is working. We've got a long way to go, but the May budget will see the government build on this strong progress and further strengthen our position in the face of challenging economic circumstances.

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