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

I withdraw. This side of the House is focused on finishing the fight against inflation. That side of the House is only interested in starting another culture war.

Now, there is no shortage of challenges in our economy. In the global economy and the domestic economy, inflation is No. 1 when it comes to the main challenges in our economy, and we are focused on the main game. In the past couple of years, we've seen inflation come off substantially. We've seen almost a million jobs created. We've seen real wages growing again. We've got a tax cut rolling out for every taxpayer at the same time as we have turned two big Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses. But we know, despite all the progress that we have made, that people are still under the pump and people are still under pressure.

That's why it beggars belief, when this is the main game right around Australia, that those opposite can't manage to ask even a single question about the cost-of-living pressures that people are confronting—not one idea about fighting inflation, not one policy for the cost of living, absolutely nothing about their $315 billion in secret cuts and what that means for Medicare and pensions and for our economy more broadly. This should be a disqualifying week for those opposite. When people are under pressure, they could not care less about the cost of living.

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