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

I thank the member for Bennelong for his question and for his work on the House economics committee as well. He knows that the defining feature of this Labor government is responsible economic management, and he knows that we have maintained a focus on fighting inflation and helping with the cost of living. That's what the tax cuts are all about as well as the energy bill relief, cheaper early childhood education and medicines, rent assistance, free TAFE, and better wages. All of that has been opposed by those opposite and delivered while we turned two big Liberal deficits into two substantial Labor surpluses.

Because of our efforts, inflation is down, wages are up, and unemployment is low. We know that people are still under pressure. We know that there is still more work, but together as Australians we have made substantial and now sustained progress in the fight against inflation. It's why Westpac yesterday and ANZ today substantially lowered their forecasts for both headline and underlying inflation in this quarter and the next quarter as well.

The biggest risk to household budgets in 2025 is sitting over there with his back to us. Australians would be thousands of dollars worse off if he had his way, and they will be worse off still if he wins the election. There's an election due in the next three months, and that means it's been almost three years now that they have had to come up with costed, coherent and credible economic policies, and they haven't been able to do it. All they have are secret costs and secret cuts. There are no costings on long lunches, no costings on their nuclear fantasy to push up electricity prices, no costings on their raid on super which will push up house prices and no costings for the golden ticket visa that he promised at a fund raiser.

They can't even get their stories straight. The Leader of the Opposition says that, of course, they'll cut 36,000 jobs. The Leader of the Nationals said yesterday that they'll cut 'hardly any'. The Leader of the Opposition says that golf days are not part of their long lunch policy. The shadow Treasurer says that they're in. This is worse than some kind of harmless shambles. It's a cuts and costings con job, and it will make Australians worse off because they can't find $10 billion a year for long lunches or the $350 billion they said they'd cut or the $600 billion they'd need for nuclear reactors without coming after Medicare again or housing or pensions or veterans or natural disaster relief. That's why this election is a simple choice: a coalition of cuts and conflict, making people worse off, and taking Australia backwards or this Labor government and this Prime Minister making progress on inflation, helping with the cost of living, strengthening Medicare and building Australia's future.

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