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

The shadow Treasurer would not know the first thing about relevance or about inflation or about government spending. The record that we have had in office has been to turn around two very substantial deficits and to turn them into two very substantial surpluses. Those are facts. Those are in the final budget outcomes for our two full years in office. Those are facts. That's because we're banking upward revisions to revenue, we're finding savings, we're doing all the things that those opposite said they would do but were completely incapable of doing in their nine, almost 10, years in office. So, he's welcome to continue to ask me about inflation or spending. We're making progress on both of those fronts.

I'm also very pleased that he's asked me about the Future Fund reforms, because we have made some important announcements today about the future of the Future Fund. What his question goes to is that every time they arc up and play up about our changes to the Future Fund reminds every Australian that they don't want to see more investment in housing, that they don't want to see more investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, that they don't want to see more investment in the kind of infrastructure that makes our economy more resilient and our people more secure.

The changes that we are announcing today are not about messing with the independence of the Future Fund. They're not about changing the expected rate of return or the Future Fund board's approach to risk. What they are about is making sure that this tremendous national asset that we have as Australians is working in the service of our national economic interests. That means working in the service of our workers, our communities, our businesses and our investors. That's what these changes are all about.

If they don't support more investment in housing, or in cleaner and cheaper energy or infrastructure, that just goes once again to the risk that they pose to our economy and to household budgets.

See this speech in context