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

There's another very similar point that Governor Bullock has made, and I'm surprised, given she said it twice, that the shadow Treasurer didn't notice it. On 16 August Governor Bullock said:

Public demand is not, as I said, the main game here. It's not the thing we are focusing on.

On 5 September she said, 'Government spending is not actually the main game here.' So, if they don't want to take my word for it, they can take the word of the Governor of the Reserve Bank. The Governor of the Reserve Bank has made it very clear that we are aligned when it comes to the fight against inflation. It's one of the reasons we've got inflation down from something that had a six in front of it when they were in office to something that has a three in front of it right now. We know that these price pressures are more persistent than we would like, and that's why it requires ongoing effort. Our primary focus is the fight against inflation, as is the Reserve Bank's. We know that we need to do that without ignoring the risks to growth and the pressures that people are already under.

If those opposite were in office, we'd be in recession right now. They'd be running huge deficits, rather than a couple of big surpluses, and that would have implications. We're managing the budget responsibly. It's the third year of a three-year parliamentary term, and they don't have any policies.

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