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

Those opposite gave Australia much higher public debt and much higher student debt, and this side of the House is giving Australia much lower public debt and much lower student debt. We think lower public debt and lower student debt are good things. We know now from the reaction to our announcement on the weekend that you think that lower student debt is a bad thing. So let every young person and everyone in Australia with student debt understand: this side of the House is trying to cut your student debt, and that side of the House wants you to have more student debt. He wants millions of Australians to have more student debt.

I can hardly believe my luck in being asked by the shadow Treasurer about public debt, because since we've come to office there has been $150 billion less public debt because of our responsible economic management. Because of that $150 billion reduction in debt, Australians will pay $80 billion less interest on that debt. If those opposite were still sitting over here, Australians would still be copping it in the neck when it comes to those higher debt interest repayments.

Because we've been able to deliver two surpluses—not an outcome that those opposite are familiar with—and because we've been able to improve the underlying cash balance by $172 billion in two years, the biggest nominal improvement in history, we've been able to see much less debt than was forecast by those opposite. What that has meant, as I said a moment ago, is that, when you manage the budget and the economy responsibly, you can make room to support people who genuinely need our help and our support.

On this side of the House, our Labor values tell us that responsible economic management is important—it is the bedrock of a good government like this one that this Prime Minister leads—but it's not an end in itself. Responsible economic management is not anathema to helping people who are doing it tough; it is central to it. It is crucial to it. By cleaning up the mess that those opposite left behind, we have been able to give a tax cut to every taxpayer, energy bill relief to every household, cheaper medicines, cheaper early childhood education, wages growth, rent assistance. We have cracked down on the supermarkets and, most importantly in the context of the last couple of days, made sure Australian young people, particularly students and graduates carrying student debt, can earn more and keep more of what they earn. We know you don't want them to do that. We know that you want Australian students to have more debt and graduates to have more debt. We are getting public debt down. We are getting student debt down—two things that you were either unable or unwilling to do.

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