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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Treasurer claimed inflation will be fixed by Christmas, despite the RBA having forecast that it will be higher for longer. How does the Prime Minister explain the difference between the Treasurer's forecasts and the views of the Reserve Bank and reputable economists like Chris Richardson and Warren Hogan?

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

The quote was made up. There are two issues here. One is, of course, the budget tonight. The RBA forecast was before the budget. The budget tonight will indicate Treasury forecasts on inflation based upon the policies that we have put in place. One of the things that I have made very clear is that when the Expenditure Review Committee is sat down—unlike what those opposite did in the lead-up to the 2022 budget of former Treasurer Frydenberg, when they just splashed money everywhere, and unlike the declarations about being back in black, when a bunch of mugs held some mugs but that was all that happened—we have made sure that we've put in place the strong measures to produce a budget surplus last year of $22 billion confirmed and a projected budget surplus this year of $9.3 billion. That is what we have done.

One of the other things we have done is to make sure that when we have considered cost-of-living relief we have done it in a way that provides support to people. That's why every single taxpayer will get a tax cut, not just some. That's why we've made sure that the measures that you'll see in tonight's budget are shaped in a way that will not put pressure on inflation—just as previous measures, all of them opposed by those opposite, like our energy price relief plan, have been found to put downward pressure on inflation, and like our cheaper childcare plan and our fee-free TAFE. They are some of the reasons inflation today is half of what we inherited.

But the test for the Leader of the Opposition is on Thursday night to produce an alternative budget with costings, with policies and with a time frame, saying not just where the expenditure is going to occur but also how they're going to pay for it. They have made a whole lot of comments, including about restoring some tax cuts for very high-income earners back to their old levels. They said they would reverse the measures that we've put in place. The Leader of the Opposition said we should go to an election on it. So Thursday night is his chance to get out of the policy-free zone that he's been in and announce fully costed policies.