Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I understand, Mr Speaker. The Treasurer loves a good bit of branding for his slogans and I was just try to help—nothing more than that! But after two years and three failed budgets, inflation is raging in this country. Inflation is raging in this country, and we have seen four months in a row where it hasn't gone down but has gone up. We are the only one of the 10 major developed economies in the world where inflation has risen since December. This Treasurer has absolutely failed in the job he has, which is to deliver genuine underlying sustainable cost-of-living relief for Australians. That's because, after three attempts, he has failed, not once, not twice, but three times, to deliver a budget that can actually solve the underlying problem.

We're about to go off on a five-week winter break—it's about 5½ weeks of winter break. This is an opportunity for this Treasurer and this government to have another go. They've had three goes and failed three times in a row, but here's a chance for them to go away and have a think about how you actually beat inflation, not drive it up, as we have seen from this government and this Treasurer three times in a row. Traditionally, when the Treasurer has taken breaks, he has gone away and done things like writing 6,000-word essays on remaking capitalism.

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