Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This debate started with a rhetorical question. Well I'm going to start my speech with what I consider to be a real question. It was the real question that I think was posed to the Australian public at the last election and the real question that they're thinking about every day, and that is who do they trust to manage this economy in difficult times, and particularly to manage it in a way that cares the most for the most vulnerable in our community? They answered this question a year ago at the election, and many of the issues that were put at that election centred entirely on how we should deal, as an economy and as a society, with the challenges that we're facing.

One example is the minimum wage. The Australian population at the last election voted clearly. They voted for the party that wanted to lift the minimum wage so that the most vulnerable in our community would have their cost-of-living pressures eased, as opposed to those who railed against it.

This debate today is about who is best placed to deal with the very profound challenges that our economy and our society are dealing with? Those opposite—either in what they stood for at the last election that was rejected at that election, or in what they have voted against since then, both in the policies that they stood against at the last election and in what they have voted against since—have shown that they are not in a position to claim anything in relation to containing inflation or providing households with assistance.

Now, if we look at what this government has done since the election we see a two-pronged approach. The first is to put in place a raft of policies which reduce inflationary pressure, to bring inflation down as quickly as possible. At the heart of that in the last budget was fiscal repair on a level we saw nothing of over the last decade. We've seen 87 per cent of the fiscal uplift the economy has seen over the last 12 months returned to the budget bottom line. That compares to 40 per cent from the previous government over the decade they were in power and 30 per cent under the Howard government. When we look at their actions in government versus what we have done, this government's actions have put much more downward pressure on inflation than anything they did over the last two decades—$40 billion in savings under this government and zero identified by them. What we have done in government versus what they have done in practice over the last 20 years represents a massive difference in downward pressure on inflation.

Another source of downward pressure on inflation is the energy price caps that we legislated, and which they voted against. So when the people of Australia ask who is better placed to manage inflationary pressures in our economy, they can directly contrast what we have done with what those opposite have voted against. There is significant downward pressure on inflation running through wholesale energy price markets, which will flow through to the economy as a whole. Those opposite voted against that, yet they come in here every day and have the temerity to ask questions complaining about energy prices.

The second prong is what we are doing to help vulnerable households. Again, the contrast could not be greater. At the last election, those opposite ran on a policy saying that an increase in the minimum wage was irresponsible. The then leader of their party, the then Prime Minister, said it was incredibly reckless. He said that we were unprepared to manage the economy, because we were putting forward an increase in the minimum wage that reflected some kind of compensation for cost-of-living increases. The contrast at the last election could not have been greater. He also went on to say that, when governments change, things can change and they can get worse. That was their description of what would happen if there was a modest increase in the minimum wage. Yet they come in here and say not enough is being done for vulnerable households. They railed against increases in the minimum wage at the last election and have voted against every single industrial relations policy that we have brought in here since. Let's look at other key measures that we've put in place to protect vulnerable households, such as five million households getting electricity bill relief. They voted against it.

It is an absolutely intellectually hollow and, indeed, hypocritical position that they run. They come in here and note a whole bunch of things that are going on in the economy, but either they ran against those things at the last election, and now come in here and say that our primary vote wasn't enough, even though we won the election, or since then, they have voted against them. As the previous speaker on our side, the member for Fenner, indicated, this government is doing a whole raft of things, and in five minutes I don't have time to list them all. Those opposite come in here complain, but they either stand against those measures or vote against them.

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