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

I appreciate the question from the member for Chisholm—she has already more questions to me with that one question than the shadow Treasurer in budget week. In the member for Chisholm's electorate, every one of the 81,000 taxpayers will get a tax cut and every one of the 75,000 households will get energy bill relief. That's because, as the Prime Minister said a moment ago, the cost-of-living relief in the budget is substantial and it is responsible, and it shows that responsible economic management is a defining feature of the government that this Prime Minister leads and it was a defining feature of the budget on Tuesday night as well. You see that in so many of the numbers which compare the situation that we inherited with the situation in the budget two years into our government.

We have been turning Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses. Last year we turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus. This year we're turning a $56 billion deficit into a $9 billion surplus. Next year: turning a $47 billion deficit into a deficit that is $19 billion better than what we inherited from those opposite. Gross debt will peak 10 percentage points lower because of our responsible economic management. That will help us avoid $80 billion in interest costs that those opposite tried to lumber us with. Under this government we banked 82 per cent of the upward revisions to revenue, versus 40 per cent under those opposite. Our real spending growth: 1.4 per cent, compared with 4.1 per cent under those opposite.

Our responsible approach is one of the reasons the inflation we inherited, with a '6' in front of it, now has a '3' in front of it and is heading towards having a '2' in front of it. Wages growth on our watch is almost double what it was under those opposite. Real wages were falling by 3.4 per cent when we came to office. They're now growing again, for the first time in years. And today we got another unemployment number, which showed that 820,000 jobs, most of them full-time, have been created on the watch of this Prime Minister and this government, and that is an important thing as well. So, we've been managing the economy in a methodical, balanced and cohesive way.

Tonight, in contrast, we will hear from the divisive leader of a divided party. They are all over the shop on nuclear, on tax breaks for the industries that will power our future and on housing. That coalition clown show of incompetence and incoherence has learned nothing from its time in office, when wages were stagnant and rorts and debts piled up and Middle Australia didn't get a look in. No matter what he says tonight, we already know that his nuclear negativity is no substitute for economic credibility. (Time expired)

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