Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her revised question, and I point out that services inflation in Australia is lower than it is in the United States or the United Kingdom. I also refer to the governor's statements that she made just yesterday. She said this: 'I've said public demand is not the main game. We still have inflation coming back to target in a reasonable way.' That's what she said. She then went on to make other comments as well. She spoke about this: 'We did take a different path to some other countries. Some other countries went up much higher, much more restrictive. Some of those countries, Canada and New Zealand, for example, are finding their unemployment rate rising quite quickly.'

She also went on to say at her press conference, 'The fact that inflation now for the last year has only been 2.8 per cent is actually real for people. They are seeing lower petrol prices. They are seeing lower electricity prices, so this is good for people. Real incomes are rising again, as inflation is declining and wage growth is a bit higher than that, and you've got the tax cuts.' Real incomes are rising again. That is what Governor Bullock had to say yesterday.

Those opposite speak about spending in their arrogant and reckless way. Have a look at what the criticism is for their $315 billion that they say is wasteful spending. Would they cut the indexation of the age pension? That's $14 billion. Would they cut energy bill relief for households and businesses? Was that wasteful? We know they opposed it. Cheaper child care for families and a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, expanding paid parental leave to six months and playing super on PPL—is that waste? Increases to Commonwealth rent assistance—we know they didn't really like that, and they certainly didn't like expanding eligibility for parenting payment single. We know that they find fee-free TAFE offensive—indeed, for a bloke who has been in the parliament for 20 years, yesterday was the first time the Leader of the Opposition has mentioned the word 'TAFE'. In 20 years in the parliament, it was the first time he has mentioned the word TAFE. Is boosting and indexing JobSeeker payments waste? Were cheaper medicines? We know they opposed that as well, and we know they want to abolish the Housing Australia Future Fund and make $19 billion of cuts to housing. That's not a way forward. What we've managed to do is halve inflation while looking after people through cost-of-living relief.

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