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

It hasn't dawned on the shadow Treasurer that he's asking that question on the same day that he voted against tax cuts for every Australian worker. Now, if the shadow Treasurer genuinely cared about cost-of-living pressures and living standards in our economy, he would have voted for our tax cuts, but instead he voted against those tax cuts. This was the consequence of the brain snap that the shadow Treasurer had in the budget lock-up yesterday, when he decided, in the face of these cost-of-living pressures, to recommend to his backbench that they vote against a tax cut for every Australian worker to help them with the cost of living. That's why they're all looking at their phones and looking at their shoes—because they know once again that the shadow Treasurer has been found out and he has been found wanting. This is why one of them described the shadow Treasurer to the Australian as a dead weight. I couldn't agree more.

What the budget is all about is providing cost-of-living relief, cutting taxes for every Australian taxpayer, strengthening Medicare and building Australia's future. It's disappointing but not surprising to see that those opposite voted against our tax cuts, because, whenever we've tried to help Australians with the cost of living, they have tried to prevent it.

So, as we get closer and closer to this election, when the Prime Minister calls it, Australians will have a very clear choice: this Labor government and this Prime Minister, cutting taxes for every taxpayer and helping Australians with the cost of living; or that opposition leader, who has a secret agenda for cuts which will make Australians worse off. As the Prime Minister said before—and I couldn't agree more—this opposition leader wants to cut everything except taxes for workers in our economy. So how dare those opposite come up here and ask about living standards and ask about inflation, when they left us inflation multiples of what it is now and rising fast? We've got inflation down, very substantially, together as Australians.

In addition to the brain snap vote against tax cuts in the parliament this morning, the other reason that this question from the shadow Treasurer is characteristically ham-fisted is that we got new inflation data today, actually, at about 11.30, and what that shows is inflation is down again. Headline inflation is down again. Underlying inflation is down again. It is a fraction of what we inherited from those opposite, so spare us the lectures about inflation and living standards. If you really cared about the cost of living, you would have voted for our tax cuts. Instead, you voted for higher taxes on every Australian worker. Well done!

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