Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What did today's monthly inflation indicator reveal, and how is the Albanese Labor government responding to the inflation challenge in the economy?

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

CHALMERS (—) (): I thank the outstanding member for Spence for his question about the cost-of-living pressures that people are facing right around Australia. Today the ABS did release the monthly CPI indicator, which rose by 6.8 per cent over the 12 months to April. This is a tick-up from the previous month's indicator, but it is well below the 8.4 per cent peak it reached over the 12 months to December last year. As I said yesterday, and as I think the Treasury secretary said yesterday, we need to be careful about the monthly figure, which bounces around from month to month and can be volatile. But what we see in the data today is that the ABS is pointing out that the tick-up in the indicator this month is being largely driven by the changes to the timing of the fuel excise that impacted the indicator in April of last year. What is really clear is that the peak in inflation is behind us. While it has been higher than we would have liked for longer than we would have liked, it is expected to moderate over the year ahead, which is a point that the RBA governor made today in his testimony.

This side of the House does understand that Australians are under the pump with these cost-of-living pressures. That's why responding to the inflation challenge remains a central focus of the Albanese government's economic plan and the budget that we handed down earlier in May. It's why we delivered a responsible budget that struck the right balance between restraint and targeted cost-of-living relief, so that we don't add to inflation pressures in the economy.

The Governor of the Reserve Bank said today—and he said it very, very clearly—that he doesn't think the budget that was handed down from this dispatch box is adding to inflation; if anything, it's taking the pressure off inflation. With that testimony this morning, the Reserve Bank governor absolutely torpedoed the rubbish argument that has been peddled by those opposite since budget night. I mean, going around the country trying to get people to write that the budget is inflationary and it's going to put upward pressure on interest rates—the Reserve Bank governor said today that his outlook for inflation and interest rates has not changed as a consequence of the budget. It's taken some of the pressure off inflation in our economy, and that was the point of the budget. The budget combined spending restraint with savings measures to try and get genuine value for money after a wasted decade of waste, rorts, economic mismanagement and nowhere near enough to show for $1 trillion in debt.

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

The Treasurer will pause. I couldn't hear what the Treasurer was saying, because there was far too much noise, but I want to hear from the Manager of Opposition Business.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the Treasurer is a serial offender. The question was commendably tight, but the Treasurer could not restrain himself from going into the record of the previous government, which is not within the terms of the question or the answer. He should be directed back to the question.

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

I uphold that point of order. The question was not an opportunity for the Treasurer to compare and contrast. I ask him to return to the question.

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

I was asked about the inflationary pressures in the economy, and the wasted decade did not help. When it came to the pressures that we inherited, our budget combined cost-of-living relief and investment in the supply side of the economy. It was a responsible budget, and, as the governor made clear today, it's taking the pressure off inflation, not adding to it.