Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it sounds like those opposite have simply had memories wiped. They've forgotten how they ridiculed Labor when we committed to seeing those on the lowest incomes get a dollar-an-hour pay rise because that would help with cost of living. These are workers who've been denied pay rises. It was an intended policy by those opposite. In government they did have policies, and that was the sort of policy they had. Those opposite have also forgotten that they opposed the caps on wholesale energy markets that we worked very hard to achieve, to make sure that the gas and electricity wholesale prices were not going to go as high as planned. But they've forgotten that they opposed it. They've also forgotten that they voted against the energy relief bill for customers—for people who want to be able to switch on the lights. And they have the nerve to come here day after day—and again today—and pretend that when they were in control they actually did things to help people.

Well, they've clearly forgotten that, when inflation was starting to take a hold in the second half of their last full year in government, in 2021, when I was talking about it and highlighting the need for action, they were just gaslighting me—gaslighting me and everybody else who could see the signs that things were not going well. I know they don't like being called 'the no-alition', so I won't call them that, because they don't like that. They're just a group of people who watch things happen, passively—just let them happen.

Well, we're not prepared to do that. We're not prepared to just stand here, in government, knowing that things are tough for people, from a combination of inflation, interest rate hikes and electricity price rises—which everybody knows are, in huge part, driven by international forces that we just can't control. We're not prepared to stand here. We're certainly not going to do what they did in government, which was to say: 'Oh, it's not our fault. It's nothing to do with us. We'll take all the upside but none of the downside.' So that's the difference between them and us.

When you think about the things that we've done around inflation, and when we've saved money in the budget, finding $40 billion in savings in the last budget—while those opposite found zero in the nearly 10 years they were there; they just kept spending more and more, with so little to show for it—that has put downward pressure on inflation. So has reducing power bills, and cutting medication costs, because you're reducing the amount of money that flows through. So does reducing childcare fees, and our childcare changes for early learning that come in from 1 July will take money out of the system, inasmuch as families won't be forced to pay more. The other thing that puts downward pressure on inflation is lowering the cost of getting to a GP and other health costs. Bit by bit, we've worked methodically and carefully to look at how we can achieve those things.

Now I know the word 'policy'—and this is something else the others don't really know how to do—for most people just means taking action. It means having a purpose and having an idea that you then implement—not just talking about it, but actually doing it. And we've done that, around cost of living, without being inflationary. That has been the key thing: doing these things without driving up inflation, because it's very easy to throw money around. They did that quite well on the other side—they just threw it around. But that doesn't help you with inflation.

So it does require a much more intelligent approach, and in energy we're seeing the benefits of that. Now, the default market offer—something none of us thought we would talk about ever, in our lives, I think, or most of us! But what it shows in New South Wales is that the steps we've taken on energy alone mean an eight per cent decrease for those who are eligible for the rebates that we've funded along with the state government—that's a decrease in power prices. For those who are not eligible, instead of it being a 40 per cent increase in power prices, it's a 21 per cent increase.

So, no, it isn't good enough yet, but it's a start. In one year, we've done more to tackle these issues than I saw from those opposite in a decade.

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