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

My question is to the Treasurer. The latest ABS monthly data shows domestic inflation is growing at five times imported inflation. It also shows core inflation increased to 4.1 per cent in April, which is higher than the UK, the US, Japan, Canada and the euro area. After three failed Labor budgets driving up the price of groceries, electricity and mortgages, will the Treasurer finally admit, as the RBA governor has pointed out, that inflation is homegrown?

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

Order! Before the Treasurer begins his answer, the member for Barker is on a warning, and I know he wants to stay to hear this answer, so he won't be interjecting at all during this answer. The Treasurer has the call.

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

If he's angry at inflation with a three in front of it, he must have been absolutely filthy about the six per cent that they left us with. When we came to office, inflation had a six in front of it. Now it's got a three in front of it, it's still too high. We acknowledge that it's still too high with a three in front of it, but it's almost half what we inherited from those opposite, and I think that more than anything explains why the shadow Treasurer hardly ever gets any questions. The truth is that when we came to office there were bigger deficits, there was more than a trillion dollars in Liberal debt. We were paying too much in interest on the debt. We had almost nothing to show for all the waste and rorts for which the shadow Treasurer was the poster child in the former government. So we have spent two years cleaning up the mess that we inherited from the—

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

The Treasurer will pause. The member for Hume will state his point of order.

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

It is relevance. The Treasurer has been begging for a question about his budget that sank without a trace. You made an excellent earlier ruling about history. Can I ask you make a similar ruling in this instance?

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

The question contained information regarding the budget, inflation and a whole range of other points. So far, the Treasurer has been directly relevant.

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

I'm talking about the relevance.

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

You can't ask about data in questions without the context of that, so I'll allow him some latitude. He is being directly relevant in terms of the topic and the issue. You may not like the answer, but he is being directly relevant. He won't be going through the history of what's happened in the past 10 years, but he's obviously able to talk about how we got to where we are. The Treasurer has the call.

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

Without a hint of self-awareness, the shadow Treasurer talks about something that sank without a trace. The least relevant person in the parliament wants to get up and talk about relevance. He asked me about inflation and he asked me about the budget. The budget was designed to put downward pressure on inflation, and our responsible economic management is one of the reasons why inflation is almost half what we inherited from those opposite, when the shadow Treasurer was the most embarrassing part of an embarrassing government.

Inflation is lower now than when we came to office. We've turned two big Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses. We've improved the bottom line by $215 billion. Debt this year is $150 billion lower than what we inherited. Next year it'll be $185 billion lower than what we inherited. That means we'll avoid $80 billion in interest costs on the debt that they racked up. Because of all of that—because of that responsible economic management—we are making welcome and encouraging progress on the big economic challenges that we inherited when we came to office two years ago.

I am the first to acknowledge that we would like inflation to moderate further and faster. We've made that clear on a number of occasions. That's why the budget has cost-of-living help which is designed in a way to be part of the solution to our inflation challenge, not part of the problem. It's why we're managing the budget in a responsible way, cleaning up the mess we inherited from those opposite. At the same time we recognise we've also got a growth challenge in our economy as well. We're fighting inflation without smashing the economy. We've seen some progress since we came to office. If those opposite were still in government, inflation would be higher, debt and deficit would be bigger and the economy would be even weaker.