Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer: The government has seen a $50 billion windfall, mainly from Australian mineral and energy export royalties. Yet they are now asking ordinary, hard-working Australians to pay more for fuel with the increase in the excise tax this week. My constituents of Fowler want details of how part of that money will go towards fixing Australia's cost-of-living crisis, which is hitting everyone from students to pensioners and families, especially those in low socioeconomic and regional areas.

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

I thank the member for Fowler for her question and for the conversations that we've been able to have about some of these important and difficult issues in the Commonwealth budget. The final budget outcome for last year, which will be released tomorrow by myself in this place and by the Minister for Finance, Senator Gallagher, will show a welcome temporary improvement in tax receipts for last year.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Members on my left!

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

Now—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left will cease interjecting. The Treasurer will be heard in silence.

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

And a big part of the improvement in the bottom line for last financial year is an increase in the tax take, and part of that, we should acknowledge, is the fact that the increase in world energy prices has meant that there's been an increase in taxes collected. So, for example, for the benefit of honourable members—

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

The member for O'Connor will cease interjecting.

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

and especially the member for Fowler—the last budget papers, including forecasts for the PRRT, for example, showed that receipts from the PRRT will increase 110 per cent, from $786 million in 2020-21 to $1.65 billion in 2021-22, with a further 45 per cent increase in 2022-23. So the premise of the member's question, about an improvement in the budget for last year and the contribution made by world energy prices and some of our energy companies, I agree with. Those are some of the issues that we've made clear, including in the course of the last couple of weeks.

As the member for Fowler and I have discussed, and as I've discussed with colleagues on this side of the House as well, and publicly in my own community and communities around Australia, the reason that the fuel excise relief will come off tomorrow night is because it would cost about $3 billion for every six months of extension—so, $6 billion a year, to extend the fuel excise relief—

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

The member for O'Connor is warned.

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

that those opposite legislated to end tomorrow night. And we're being upfront with people about that. We know that's a difficult decision. We know it impacts people who drive further. But our commitment to them, all along, is to manage the budget as responsibly as we can, to provide cost-of-living relief where we can, where there's an economic dividend, in areas like child care, cheaper TAFE and cheaper medicines and getting wages moving again.

But nobody is pretending that the end of the fuel excise relief won't make things more difficult. We understand that. We appreciate that. And we're being upfront with people on the reason why that's ending on the timetable set by those opposite and we're not able to extend it.

But we are providing cost-of-living relief to the member for Fowler's constituents, and to Australians all around the country. We'll do that in an affordable and a responsible way that's right for the budget and right for the economy.