Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Why is responsible budget management important in uncertain times? How is this relevant to consideration of government appropriations which are pending in the House?

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

Thanks to the member for Werriwa for her question. Inflation is the defining challenge in our economy, and it was the defining influence on the budget that we handed down this week. The backdrop for that budget was obviously the slowing global economy, a war in Europe and structural spending pressures on the budget. That's why the three parts of the budget strategy were so important and so right for the times that we confront together. First of all, the cost-of-living relief was provided in a way that was responsible and not reckless, because it didn't add extra pressure on inflation. Secondly, we're investing in the drivers of growth and resilience in our economy and beginning to repair some of our broken supply chains. And then, thirdly, we're starting the hard work of repairing the budget so that we can rebuild our buffers against some of the global uncertainty that we confront.

The spending restraint and budget responsibility that we saw in Tuesday night's budget would have been absolutely unrecognisable to those opposite. And let me give you two examples of that. In our budget on Tuesday night, we had $22 billion worth of savings—not a bad start.

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

The member for Hume is on a general warning.

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

The budget in March delivered from this dispatch box by my predecessor had precisely $0 in savings on the spending side of the budget—$22 billion on Tuesday, $0 in March. And then on Tuesday night we banked 99 per cent of the temporary revenue surge that we got from higher commodity prices. In the budget in March, they banked 40 per cent—so 99 per cent versus 40 per cent. No wonder they don't have enough to show for their trillion in debt. We're told today that the Leader of the Opposition, in his speech tonight about the appropriations, wants to talk about the government's economic record. He takes very seriously his responsibility as the leader of the leftovers! In doing so, he has a rolled-gold opportunity tonight to fess up for the coalition record on the economy. Let's consider it for a moment. Their record on the economy is skills shortages holding the economy back. It's stagnant wages for a decade. It's weak productivity and business investment. It's an aged-care crisis. It's a trillion dollars in debt, with nowhere near enough to show for it. And it's this energy policy chaos which is making us more vulnerable to global energy shocks. What we're seeing in our energy markets right now—the blame for that rests squarely with Vladimir Putin. But the blame for making us more vulnerable to it rests with the member for Hume.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left! The members for Barker and O'Connor are on a warning.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry and Science. Why does the budget contain more than $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, including $30 million to frack for gas in the Beetaloo basin and almost $2 billion to fund a gas export terminal in Darwin Harbour, when we are in the middle of a climate emergency?

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for the question. A lot of that is not directed necessarily to my portfolio and relates to other areas, but we're happy to take it on notice and we'll get back to you with some response.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government's budget delivering for women?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and for her advocacy. The member for Boothby, of course, stood up for the rights of women, particularly, in the roles that she played at St Vincent de Paul, and in other areas as well, looking after disadvantaged people in her electorate. This is a budget that puts equality for women at its centre. For cheaper child care and early childhood education, there is $4.6 billion over four years. This is good for families and good for children, but, importantly, it is economic reform that's good for the economy—reform that will boost productivity, boost women's workforce participation and boost their retirement incomes and, of course, act as an incentive to boost population as well. We have the biggest expansion to paid parental leave since it was introduced back in 2011—of course, by a Labor government—designed to encourage parents to share caring responsibilities more equally. We have record funding for women's safety—$1.7 billion over six years. This includes investing in an additional 500 frontline community workers and ensuring that the returns of the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund can help deliver 4,000 new homes, to put a roof over the heads of women and children fleeing violence and over the heads of older women who are at risk of homelessness. There is $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women and children fleeing violence. We are fully implementing the Respect@Work report, including implementing working women's centres in every single state and territory.

I note that today we have finally carried through both houses of parliament 10 days of family and domestic violence leave—an important thing so that women won't be faced with a choice of putting food on the table or staying in a violent situation. It is very important, and I thank the parliament for adopting this important measure.

Importantly as well, an overwhelming majority of the 2.7 million workers who the just-over-a-dollar-an-hour pay increase flowed through to were women—just as those women who work in the aged-care sector will benefit from our advocacy of an increase in pay. We're leading the national push to expose and close the gender pay gap. We have introduced the Respect@Work report legislation, as we have the other legislation around this.

All of this has been missing from the national stage for nearly a decade. In their first budget, of course, Tony Abbott was remarkably the Minister for the Status of Women. There was only one woman in their first cabinet. We have a majority of women in the Labor caucus—54 out of 103—a fact that we are proud of.