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

This shadow minister asks questions about why we spend too much. This shadow minister asks questions about why we didn't spend enough. And I don't know what the reason for this last question was, but, in all seriousness, inflation is obviously the defining challenge in our economy, and that's why it guided our considerations of the cost-of-living package, the growth plan in the budget and also the fiscal restraint, which would be foreign and unrecognisable to those opposite.

Inflation is moderating, but not as quick as we would like. It will be higher than we'd like for longer than we'd like, and that's why we've got a targeted cost-of-living package in the budget which is carefully designed to take some of the pressure off people dealing with these inflationary pressures in the economy, without adding to those inflationary pressures. I read through before, in the response to the shadow Treasurer's question, the economists, including from some of the big private-sector banks, who have said that, at worst, the budget is broadly neutral but that when it comes to our energy plan it's actually putting downward pressure on inflation. And it's also dealing with the areas where the inflationary challenge is the most acute: out-of-pocket health costs, energy costs and rent costs as well. These are the big pressures in the inflation forecast, and that's why we've gone out of our way—in a responsible, methodical and considered way—to try and address these inflationary pressures.

The reason why the budget is in much better nick than it was under those opposite is that we've taken a different approach to the budget. When we've got these upward revisions to revenue, we've banked as much as we could to try and put the budget on a more sustainable footing. That's why the budget in 2022-23, when inflation is most acute, is a contractionary budget, and it's responsible after that as well.

So I understand the embarrassment of those opposite: this side of the House is forecasting a surplus, the first one in 15 years, and they have to try and concoct this outrage. The reality is that the budget position that we inherited is a consequence of a decade of a bin fire of rorts, waste and mismanagement. We have taken responsibility for cleaning up the mess that they left. We made a heap of progress in the budget last night and there will be more to do.

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