Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What is the focus of the Albanese Labor government's second budget, and how will it deliver for Australians and their economy? And what challenges does the budget have to deal with?

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

I thank the member for Wills for his question, and I acknowledge the youth advisory groups who have joined us in the parliament today. Welcome; we're very pleased to see you.

Mr Speaker, as you know, this is the last sitting day before a budget which will be finalised against the backdrop of inflation, which is moderating but still unacceptably high, and in an environment of global economic uncertainty. This week I spoke with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank's Christine Lagarde, ahead of our discussions with G20 economic ministers and central bank governors in a couple of weeks in Washington DC. That will help us understand the global conditions as we put the finishing touches on the budget.

International authorities are working closely together to do what's necessary to reassure markets and provide some extra liquidity into the banking system, and that has had a calming effect on markets. This morning I convened the Council of Financial Regulators, and their message is very clear: our banks are well capitalised, well regulated and well placed to deal with this uncertainty. Our authorities are confident but not complacent about these conditions, and we are vigilant as a government. But volatility in financial markets, combined with the war in Ukraine and the impact of higher interest rates, is creating uncertainty around the world in the global economy.

We've got a lot going for us here—low unemployment, good prices for our exports, strong banks. But we've got a lot coming at us as well. Australians are still under the pump, and we understand that. Inflation is, as I said, unacceptably high, but it's clearly moderating in welcome ways as well. The Reserve Bank board will weigh all this up when they take their decision independently on Tuesday.

Our job in this environment is to provide relief and repair and show restraint in the budget, when there's a trillion dollars in Liberal debt to deal with and billions of dollars of unfunded programs as well. The budget will put a premium on what's responsible and affordable and sustainable. It will be all about cost-of-living relief, including energy bill relief which those opposite voted against. It will invest in the care economy and decent services. It will fund our national security priorities. It'll fix our supply chains so we can grow our economy the right way. It will begin to break down the barriers to women's participation in the economy. It will try and tackle entrenched disadvantage in local communities, at the same time as we get the budget under control and clean up the mess that we inherited from those opposite.

The budget will be all about providing security in these uncertain economic times, so that we give Australians the help they need and the economic future they deserve. I look forward to handing down the budget from this dispatch box in 40 days time.