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

Indeed, I do use it each and every day. I use it to know that, indeed, inflation had taken off well before Labor took office. Indeed, the largest quarterly rise this century was—guess when? March 2022. The largest rise in inflation of any quarter this century was on their watch—the last quarter in which they were in office. That is the starting point that my government inherited: a 2.1 per cent jump in one quarter. If you do a bit of maths—you don't need an economics degree—2.1 over a quarter times four equals a pretty high inflation rate. That is what they were dealing with, and that is what we have had to deal with.

After the election, it emerged that the Morrison government had ignored Treasury warnings, and it used its final budget to unleash a desperate vote-buying spending spree. They added fuel to the inflation fire. A former government source described it as 'ordering the entree, the main and the dessert'. It was all there. All the one-off payments and the cash payments were there—not worrying about the impact.

Indeed, Australians always pay more under the coalition. We know that the highest-taxing government was the Howard government and the second-highest-taxing government was that of Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. The budget papers accompanying their final budget last year showed no surpluses over the forwards; instead, the coalition were on track to rack up $224 billion in additional borrowings over just four years. The Intergenerational report showed the budget would not be in surplus in any year between now and 2060. That was their legacy.

Honourable members interjecting—

See this speech in context