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

I'm very grateful to the member for Higgins not only for the question but also for the way that she engages in the big economic questions that we confront as a government. As we know, the national accounts last week showed that growth is slow and subdued in our economy, and a big part of that is consumption going backwards and, especially, discretionary spending falling. This is another reminder of the pressures that people are under. But, as a government, we have decided and we are determined. We don't just acknowledge the pressures that people are under; we are actually doing something about it. That's why we're rolling out cost-of-living relief: a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, rent assistance, cheaper medicines, cheaper early childhood education, and getting real wages moving again. Our primary focus is on the cost of living and rolling out cost-of-living help. It's the major part of our efforts, but it's not the only part. We are doing this at the same time as we get the budget in better nick then we inherited.

As I've said a couple of times, we inherited a couple of huge deficits and we turned them into substantial surpluses. Before the end of the month, Minister Gallagher and I will release the final budget outcome for the year that has just finished. The surplus for the year just finished will be in the mid teens in terms of billion dollars. That means a $170 billion turnaround in the budget in two years. That's a $170 billion turnaround from the mess that we inherited to the budget position that we've delivered in just two years in office. It wouldn't have happened without our responsible economic management and, as I've said a couple of times, the governor has made it clear that our surpluses are helping in the fight against inflation. The key here is that we've maintained the right balance between a primary focus on inflation and recognising the risks to jobs and growth in our economy. Because of the balance that we've struck, inflation has halved, we've avoided recession, there are a million new jobs, real wages are growing again, and every taxpayer is getting a tax cut.

There are no shortages of risks to the economy, and one of them sits over there. That's because they want to slash $315 billion in spending without coming clean on where those cuts are coming from. They need to come clean on their cuts. That $315 billion includes cost-of-living relief, pension indexation, Medicare and funding for medicines and veterans—

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