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

Thanks to the outstanding member for Robertson for his question. You wouldn't know it from those opposite but, since parliament last sat, we got quarterly and monthly inflation numbers for September. Inflation at 2.8 per cent was the lowest in almost four years. Inflation is now in the Reserve Bank's target range for the first time since 2021, underlying inflation came down substantially as well and is now the lowest it's been in almost three years, and monthly inflation came down to 2.1 per cent. So headline, underlying and monthly inflation all came down quite a bit and that means we are making welcome, encouraging, heartening progress in the fight against inflation.

We know that people are still doing it tough and we know that the fight isn't over yet. But when we came to office, inflation was much higher and rising; now it is much lower and falling. When we came to office, it had a six in front of it and now it has a two in front of it under us. Inflation is back in the target band and our policies are helping. We are coming at this cost-of-living challenge from every conceivable and responsible angle. The announcements that the PM and the education and skills ministers made on the weekend go to those cost-of-living efforts that we are making as a government.

The energy rebates are also making a welcome difference but they don't tell the whole story. Our two surpluses are helping as well. This is something that the Reserve Bank governor has, herself, acknowledged: when it comes to the fight against inflation, our responsible economic management—whether it's the two surpluses or the way we are designing our cost-of-living help—is helping in the fight against inflation and we are making good progress. The inflation numbers last week were welcome, and they were encouraging.

As always, those opposite pore over them, looking for any anti-government angle, because they desperately want inflation to be higher. They desperately want inflation and interest rates to be higher, because it suits their political purposes. If you step back for a moment from the politics and the partisanship and consider what Australia has achieved under this Prime Minister, inflation has more than halved, real wages are growing again, a million jobs created in a single parliamentary term for the first time ever, tax cuts for every taxpayer, two surpluses, $150 billion less debt and saving $80 billion in debt interest. That's what responsible economic management looks like, and this is the progress which is at risk under the reckless arrogance of the opposition leader and the callous cluelessness of his hopeless shadow Treasurer. We are managing the economy in the interests of the Australian people, supporting them in tough times and getting inflation down. All of these outcomes are unrecognisable to those opposite.

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