Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow Assistant Treasurer just said that Australians are doing it tough, and he's right. He pointed out that prices have increased, that rents have increased and that many families are struggling to make ends meet. He's right about all of those things. What he's not right about is the cause of that pressure on Australian family budgets. The cause of that pressure is that the previous government left inflation running at record high levels. Inflation under this government has been cut in half. The shadow minister spent a lot of time talking about the price of energy and rents and about other family costs. What he didn't tell you is the trajectory of those prices since his government left office and our government began. Let's take them one by one.

Energy costs—when his government left office, they were forecasting electricity costs to increase by 20 per cent in the following year, a 20 per cent annual increase. That's not something they were upfront about in the election period, but that was information that they provided to then energy minister, now shadow Treasurer. Subsequently, the runs are on the board. The latest inflation numbers that were released the week before last showed that electricity prices in the last quarter fell by 1.5 per cent. So we've reduced electricity prices, which were running at 20 per cent before the last election when the Liberals had stewardship, by 1.5 per cent in the most recent quarterly numbers. Similarly, gas prices in Australia—the gas component of the CPI—have fallen by 1.7 per cent in the latest quarterly numbers.

I am sure that the empathy that the shadow Assistant Treasurer speaks of for Australian families doing it tough is well meant and sincere. Unfortunately, the reason that prices were going up so much for those Australian families is that the Liberals left a legacy of high inflation across the board, and the hope that those families have is that the Labor government continues the work that it has done to reduce prices across the board, to halve inflation and to reduce pressure on interest rates.

The truth is that, if we had left inflation running at the level that the Liberals left it at, which was 2.1 per cent quarterly growth in the last quarter printed before they left office, the average Australian family would be paying $200 more a week for their expenses. If we'd left inflation at that level, prices today would be 17 per cent higher now than they were at the time of the election. So it's true that Australian families are doing it tough and that prices have risen, but they have risen by a lot less than they would have if we had let the rate of inflation that the Liberals were running stay intact.

But that is not what we have done. What we've done is work to reduce the level of inflation in Australia through prudent budget measures that have helped take the pressure off prices, provide fiscal surpluses and reduce the cumulative underlying cash balance by $214 billion. This is one of the largest fiscal turnarounds in Australian history. Indeed, it's one of the largest fiscal turnarounds in world history. We've reduced the cumulative deficits by around two-thirds over the six years to 2028. We've found $105 billion in responsible savings and budget improvements, and doing so has avoided around $80 billion in interest payments over the medium term. What we've delivered is the first budget surplus—in fact, back-to-back surpluses, not back to black, which was their idea—in 15 years.

This is the hope that Australian families have—that, through the prudent and responsible fiscal management that they have seen in the last two budgets, we can bring down inflation from the horrific levels left by the Liberal government. That provides relief to families on their daily pressures and ultimately provides relief as it gives more room to the RBA to bring down interest rates. That's the hope for Australian families, and that's what Labor is delivering.

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