Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government tackling the cost-of-living pressures Australian families are facing, and what has been the response?

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

Thank you very much to the member for that question. Indeed, taking action on cost of living is of course this government's No. 1 priority. We understand that people are under pressure and we're acting to provide relief. We're doing that in three ways. One is getting costs down for families through policies like cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, energy bill relief, fee-free TAFE—all of those measures. Secondly, we're getting wages up for workers—something that those opposite opposed. They wanted, of course, low wages to be a key feature of their economic architecture. The third, of course, is getting the budget onto a stronger foundation, producing, under this Treasurer, the first surplus in 15 years—

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Costs are going up.

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

The members for Hume and Page will cease interjecting.

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

a $100 billion turnaround in just one year.

After a decade of flat wages, it is a good thing that real wages have increased for three quarters in a row—three consecutive quarters of real wage growth. Those opposite, of course, will once again oppose any increase in the minimum wage. Well, that's not this government's position. The government's position is that people who are on the minimum wage shouldn't fall behind, and our submission this week will be consistent with that. When, during the election campaign, as the minister said, I was asked, 'Should lower-paid workers keep up with the pace of inflation?' I answered in a single word: 'Absolutely.' What those opposite did was run a campaign for about five days saying that the sky would fall in, the economy would collapse, whereas what we are actually seeing is real wages increasing and inflation moderating at the same time, as is unemployment, of course. They had other figures they hated last week when unemployment hit 3.7 per cent.

It's not just about the wages that people earn. We want people to earn higher wages, but we want people to keep more of what they earn. That is what our tax cuts on 1 July will do. For people on those low minimum wages—all 13.6 million of them—there'll be $800 more in their pocket as a result of this government's policy. Under those opposite, they would have got nothing.

This morning Senator Hume—in a battle of the economic titans between Senator Hume and the member for Hume—was out there criticising us, saying, 'The Labor government wants minimum wages to go higher as a cost-of-living measure.' You bet we do!