Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is taking this country in the wrong direction. Families and small businesses in my electorate are facing a 20 per cent rise in electricity prices, along with higher gas prices, as a result of this government's policies. Is the Prime Minister aware that farmers, food manufacturers and transport companies are facing the same price hikes and have no choice but to pass them on to consumers, which is why Australians are paying more at the checkout?

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

I thank the member for Mallee for her question. I am asked to compare, really, whether the government is taking Australia in the right direction, and I'm happy to do so, because since we came to office we have created more jobs, including in regional Australia, than any new government in Australian history. In areas like manufacturing, there have been almost 100,000 additional jobs created since we came to office. In the last two quarters, as we've seen through figures from last week, we've seen productivity increase after such a decline under those opposite. We see record numbers of women employed full time. When it comes to gender issues, we see the gender pay gap being the smallest it's been in Australian history, at just 12 per cent. We see industrial disputes being lower than they were. On the last figures available, there were 44,000 over the December quarter of 2023, compared with 128,000 in the former government's last quarter in office. We look at inflation. Inflation peaked under them, in March 2022, at 2.1 per cent in the March quarter, their last full quarter in office. What we saw in the December quarter was 0.6 per cent.

When it comes to energy prices, in the June quarter of 2022 the price was $264 a megawatt hour. Now it is about a quarter of that. When it comes to gas prices, similarly, there is an enormous drop as well. When it comes to private business investment, we see higher private business investment occurring. The number of small businesses is now larger. Of course, when it comes to agriculture, when I visited Port Lincoln, I looked at a shipload of barley going to China.

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

The member for Cowper will cease interjecting.

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

And today I will welcome the foreign minister of China, Wang Yi—

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

The member for Cowper is warned.

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

who I will meet with immediately after question time, and one of the issues that we'll discuss is trade and the removal of any further impediments.

But, of course, to run an effective economy you need to keep control of the budget. There was a $78 billion deficit under them and $22 billion surplus under us. (Time expired)