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

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. The point I'm making is that we will start to take the shadow Treasurer seriously when his own colleagues do and give him a question, and there is absolutely no sign of that.

We know why there's been a sole focus from those opposite on trying to divide our community and diminish our country. It's because they're trying to distract from the fact that we are in the third year of a parliamentary term and we still haven't heard one costed or credible policy on the economy or the cost of living from those opposite. This is quite an extraordinary thing: the third year of a three-year parliamentary term and not one idea about fighting inflation nor one policy for the cost of living.

I think the thing people are starting to cotton on to, in terms of the silence of those opposite on the economy and their motives for that, is that the shadow Treasurer and the shadow minister for finance have both said there is $315 billion too much spending in our budget, and the logical conclusion from that is that they will cut $315 billion from the budget. So they need to come clean on what their $315 billion in secret cuts means for Medicare and what it means for pensions. One of the reasons for that spending is the indexation of the pension. We wrongly assumed it was a bipartisan position that the pension be indexed to keep up with the cost of living, but we will assume that no more, because they have said that indexing the pension or investing in Medicare or spending on the PBS is, in their words, 'wasteful spending'. So let's have no more delays when it comes to those opposite and their $315 billion in secret cuts. Let's hear where the axe will fall, and let's hear what it means for Medicare and pensions and for the economy more broadly.

The other thing that this whole confected, divisive outrage has been all about this week is that in their heart of hearts, if those opposite know that people are under pressure, they want more inflation. They want higher interest rates. They want higher unemployment. They want a more divided community. In the absence of any compelling or costed or credible policies, they think their best way to sneak back into office is through the back door. They think that, if inflation is higher and interest rates are higher and people are under more pressure, those opposite will profit from that politically, and they should be ashamed of themselves for taking that view.

We take a completely different view. We don't pretend for one second that all the challenges in our economy have been solved. We acknowledge that people are still under pressure, but we know that inflation had a six in front of it when we came to office and it's got a three in front of it now. Under Prime Minister Albanese, we've created almost a million jobs, and that's never happened before in a parliamentary term. We know that real wages are growing again. They were falling under those opposite. We know that nominal wages growth is almost double what we saw in their wasted decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression. We know that tax cuts are rolling out for every taxpayer. Those opposite wanted tax cuts for only some taxpayers; they wanted tax cuts only for people who were already doing relatively well in comparison to others. We also know that in a little over two years in office we have turned two enormous Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses, and the Reserve Bank governor has said that that is helping in the fight against inflation.

So, whether it's our responsible economic management, whether it's our cost-of-living relief—which is meaningful and substantial but designed in the most responsible way—whether it's our investments in the future, whether it's paying super on PPL or whether it's all the other things we've been working on this week, the contrast could not be clearer: a Labor side of this parliament who cares deeply about and understand the pressures on people and is responding with real and responsible policy versus an opposition that could not care less about the pressures people are under. They are horrendously out of touch. They would rather start another culture war than finish the fight against inflation, and every question time this week has made that clear.

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