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

I certainly will, Mr Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition, with the broadness of that question, has given me an opportunity not just to confirm the independence of the Future Fund—that's very important—and the fact that their mandate will be about maximising returns, which it will be.

I'm also asked about inflation. Inflation was at 6.1 per cent when we came to office, and now it's at 2.8 per cent. We've done that while one million jobs have been created during this term of office. Unemployment is at 4.1 per cent. Real wages are increasing because we want to make sure that people earn more, and there are also tax cuts for all Australians because we want people to keep more of what they earn. Across the board, when you look at all the economic indicators—the Leader of the Opposition stands and asks a broad question about the economy and then we see the nuclear overreaction from him when we actually go through what the economic figures are.

We know that there are alternatives because he wants Australians to pay more. He has a housing scheme that will drive up house prices. He has a supermarket scheme that will drive up grocery prices. He has an energy scheme that will drive up power prices. And he has a NBN scheme—I notice they want to privatise the NBN now. They want to privatise the NBN, and we know what the consequences for regional Australia will be.

See this speech in context