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

The 1st of July is a very important day, because after Monday every taxpayer will get a tax cut, every household will get energy bill relief and millions of workers on awards will get a pay rise. We are delivering cheaper medicines and an extra two weeks of paid parental leave. So Monday is a very important day for parents and pensioners, for workers and families, for middle Australia, for teachers, for truckies and for nurses.

Those opposite said they would roll back the tax cuts. They voted against energy bill relief last time. They said no to cheaper medicines. They presided over a decade of low wages growth. This side of the House is proud to be delivering better wages, bigger tax cuts, more energy bill relief, cheaper medicines and more help for parents. This is how we ensure that Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn. This is how you deliver cost-of-living relief, not by pushing up prices with expensive nuclear reactors, which cost more, take longer, create new investor uncertainty and squander the economic opportunity that comes from cheaper and cleaner renewable energy. You don't deliver cost-of-living relief by pretending, as the Leader of the Opposition does, that there will be lower power prices in the 2020s if you build reactors in the late 2030s.

We know that people are under the pump right now. We will see that in the inflation numbers that we get tomorrow. Those numbers will show that inflation is much lower than at its peak and much lower than the 6.1 per cent that we inherited from the coalition. We also know that inflation doesn't always moderate in a straight line. The monthly numbers can be volatile. They don't compare the same things from one month to the next month. We know, from inflation which peaked earlier and higher in other countries, that it can zig and zag on the way down—and that last mile can be a bit harder. Our policies are reducing inflation and they are expected to reduce inflation further. That is why the most recent Treasury forecasts have us coming back to the inflation target band earlier than expected. That is because of our responsible economic management. It is because we are turning two big Liberal deficits into two substantial Labor surpluses. It is because of the way that we are rolling out cost-of-living relief—from this Monday, a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, a pay rise for people on awards, cheaper medicines and an extra two weeks of paid parental leave.

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