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

The governor made it clear last week in her public comments that she doesn't agree with the assessment put forward by the deputy leader. The second point I'm asked about is cleaning up the mess. It's ironic when you consider the mess that we inherited—turning those deficits to surpluses and getting real wages moving again. Inflation is half of what its peak was in the year that we were elected.

In terms of the rest of the question, it is self-evident—it is a factual point—to say that a combination of global economic uncertainty, persistent price pressures and higher interest rates are slowing our economy. If those opposite don't agree with that, they don't know the first thing about the economy. I say to the deputy leader: don't take your economic advice from the shadow Treasurer, because everybody who looks at this objectively and factually knows that higher interest rates are slowing our economy. We saw it in the numbers for consumption, discretionary spending, households and dwellings, and we saw it in a number of indicators in the national accounts.

More broadly, when it comes to the fight against inflation, I take responsibility for our part of the fight against inflation. I take responsibility for surpluses, when those opposite only ever delivered deficits. I take responsibility for $80 billion in savings, when those opposite had none in their last budget. I take responsibility for banking almost all of the upward revisions to revenue, when those opposite spent most of it. I take responsibility for helping inflation moderate further, after we inherited much higher inflation from those opposite and it was still going up. I take responsibility for helping the Reserve Bank governor fight inflation without ignoring the risks to growth.

I won't be taking lectures from those opposite, who left us huge deficits and a trillion dollars in debt. They left us with inflation with a six in front of it—and rising. It's the same people who cheer for higher interest rates and a recession because it serves their political interests, the same people who would have us in recession right now but with no help for people who are doing it tough on lower wages, the same people who can't tell us where those $315 billion in secret cuts are coming from and the same people who don't have a costed or credible alternative economic policy.

As the Governor of the Reserve Bank said last week, the government and the governor are aligned when it comes to the fight against inflation. We've got the same objective, but we've got different responsibilities. I take responsibility for our part in the fight against inflation. We are making welcome progress, since inflation was north of six per cent when you were in office.

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