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

This was a budget for middle Australia: tripling the bulk-billing incentive for families with kids under 16, reducing the cost of medicines, energy price relief, the Household Energy Upgrades Fund, getting more Australians into home ownership sooner, additional TAFE and training places, enhanced liveability in our cities, more affordable early childhood education and care from 1 July, paid parental leave being extended, and superannuation paid on pay day. This was a budget for middle Australia. Those opposite presided over a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression, which should disqualify them from asking questions in this place about middle Australia.

I was also asked to compare and contrast the experience of economic management and budget management under those opposite compared to the experience under us. I appreciate, I am grateful for, the shadow Treasurer almost every day but especially today, because he gives me the opportunity to remind the Australian people of the absolute bin fire of economic irresponsibility which defined those opposite's decade in office. The worst quarter for inflation was the March quarter of last year when they were in office. They handed down a budget which had $39 billion in net new spending when inflation was on the way up. After inflation starts moderating, our budget has a net spend of $20 billion, so half as much spending with an extra $40 billion in savings compared to zero savings in the last budget of those opposite.

In the bizarre alternative universe that they inhabit, those opposite want the Australian people to think that our budget, which puts downward pressure on inflation next year, versus their budget, which put upward pressure on inflation last year, is worse. They want to try and distract and hoodwink the Australian people. The markets know better and the economists know better. What the markets and the economists have said since our budget was handed down is that our budget achieves the core objective, which is to take some of the edge off these cost-of-living pressures without adding to inflation. We do that with the energy bill relief that those opposite voted against. We do that with the energy price caps that those opposite voted against. You have absolutely no credibility on middle Australia or anything else to do with it. (Time expired)

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