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

I thank the honourable member for asking the question the shadow Treasurer was supposed to be asking before he got turfed out a few moments ago. The question goes to the pressures that people are feeling in our economy right now. We acknowledge them, but more than acknowledging them, we are doing something about it. It beggars belief in the context of an economy which is slowing considerably, an economy where people are under considerable cost-of-living pressure, that those opposite oppose our cost-of-living relief for people who are doing it tough. They've said they want to roll back the tax cuts, they've said they don't support helping people with their energy bills, they've said they don't support cheaper medicines or cheaper early childhood education. They've said that they said they don't support rent assistance. They obviously don't support getting wages moving again, because they deliberately presided over a decade of wage stagnation and wage suppression. So we won't be taking lectures from those opposite on responsible economic management.

When we came to office, inflation was much higher and rising. It had a six in front of it'; it now has a three in front of it. When we came to office, those opposite had presided over the worst decade for productivity growth in the last 60 years. When we came to office, there were huge deficits, and we turned two of those deficits into substantial labour surpluses. When we came to office, real wages were falling 3.4 per cent, and they're growing again. When we came to office, nominal wages were stagnant; they're now growing, on average, almost twice as fast as they were under those opposite. That's a deliberate design feature of our economic policy to get wages moving again so that people can earn more and keep more of what they earn.

The thing that really goes to the difference between the big parties in the parliament when it comes to the economy and the pressures people are feeling right around our country is that when we had an opportunity to give a tax cut to every single Australian taxpayer, we grabbed that opportunity, because we know people are doing it tough right up and down the income scale. If those opposite had their way, only some people would be getting a tax cut—people who are doing better than others. If those opposite had their way, there would be lower wages. If those opposite had their way, there would be no cost-of-living help for people doing it tough. If those opposite had their way, Australia would be in recession right now. We know that because they gave us a lot of free advice about cutting harder and harsher in the budget. We didn't take that advice, and that's because we're going for a soft landing in our economy, and those opposite want a crash landing in our economy because they think it suits their political purposes.

Their time would be much better spent coming clean on the $315 billion in cuts—secret cuts—and telling the Australian people what those hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts will mean for Medicare—

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