Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Last week's ANZ consumer confidence survey showed consumers are as pessimistic as when the pandemic started, it's a bad time to buy major household items and mortgage holders are increasingly grim. But the Prime Minister says Australians have had a good 10 months. When will this out-of-touch Prime Minister finally admit that Australian families always pay more under Labor?

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

I thank the member for Flinders for her question. We certainly know that too many families are doing it tough. Inflation is a problem right around the world. Today's figures showing a downward trend is a positive, but we know there is much more work to do. Our biggest priority this year has been making sure that Australians have that economic security and stability so that they can plan ahead and build better futures. That's why we're acting on cost-of-living measures. That's why cheaper medicines began on 1 January. That's why cheaper child care begins on 1 July.

That's why 180,000 Australians are benefiting from fee-free TAFE. When I was in the electorate of Aston last Friday with the member for O'Connor and the Minister for Early Childhood Education, we had the opportunity to talk to students there who had enrolled in courses in order to secure their future, because they were fee free. From talking to those students, the fee-free places had made such a difference to them. They were giving it a crack, enrolling in courses, including, in particular, in the health sector but in other services sectors as well, to ensure that they could get secure, well-paid jobs into the future. That's what they wanted to do.

But we're not just doing that. We're extending paid parental leave to six months. We're getting wages moving again. We're also dealing with issues including housing, with our Housing Australia Future Fund, which is opposed by those opposite.

Earlier today, we had the bizarre situation of those opposite actually calling a division after the Senate returned the National Reconstruction Fund legislation to this chamber. That's about growth, that's about investment and it's about making sure that our economy grows. On top of that, of course, you have the $1½ billion in the Energy Price Relief Plan—something that was opposed by those opposite.

The fact is that those opposite come in here and they just oppose everything. They've stopped participating in debate. They're just the observers of Australian politics—the people who just sit back and say no to absolutely everything that is put forward, who never move amendments and who don't have any constructive alternatives. (Time expired)