Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer name a single new initiative announced since coming to government that will address the rising cost-of-living pressures facing Australian households and businesses?

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

I thank the member for Hume for the question but, most of all, from the very bottom of my heart, I thank whoever thought it was a good idea to get Angus to ask a question about the cost of living! The member for Hume is very chirpy now about the cost of living. But when the Australian people really needed him to speak up about that 20 per cent increase in electricity prices that he intervened to keep quiet about during the election he was absolutely nowhere to be found. It was the same with the captain's call made by the Leader of the Opposition, who said we should extend the petrol excise relief. The member for Hume was asked eight times in a press conference yesterday afternoon whether he agrees with the Leader of the Opposition, and he couldn't do it.

We have been consistent right throughout this conversation. We have said that our priority on the cost of living is to implement the commitments that the Prime Minister and everyone on this side of the House took to the election. Those commitments are around making child care cheaper and more affordable for more people. Our commitments—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll call the member for Hume, but the question was about initiatives, and the Treasurer was talking about initiatives.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is on relevance. The question was—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat. I call the Treasurer.

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

The budget in October will contain a range of new initiatives which we took to the election and for which we won the support of the Australian people: cheaper child care, cheaper medicines and a wages policy to get wages growing again in this country after a decade of deliberate wage suppression and deliberate wage stagnation that those opposite chased when it came to their economic policies. We've said all along that when you inherit a budget that is absolutely heaving with $1 trillion in Liberal Party debt you've got to work out what your priorities are. Our priorities are child care, skills, the cost of medicine, getting wages growing again and investing in the energies of the future—cleaner, cheaper and more-reliable energy—all the issues that we took to the election and won a mandate for. In many ways, they are the reason we are on this side of the House and you, thankfully, are on that side of the House. We've been consistent all along.

When it comes to the cost of living, you cannot take those opposite seriously. This is the party that called for fiscal responsibility at the same time as they said we should shovel billions more out the door. This is the party that demands an invite to a jobs summit they want cancelled. If you were to believe the wise words of the Financial Review, this is the party that got John Howard in to teach them about the future. You cannot believe a word that those opposites say about the cost of living. When it comes to the cost of living, the member for Hume, in particular, should be ashamed of himself.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Member for Hume will cease interjecting. We'll have silence before we hear the next question. The minister for industry is not helping. I give the call to the Member for Moreton.