Jodie Belyea (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government responding to the challenges in our economy in a responsible and balanced way, and what approaches have been rejected?

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

Thanks to the member for Dunkley not just for her question but for helping to ensure that every one of the 73,000 taxpayers in her community will get a tax cut, every one of the 65,000 households in her community will get energy bill relief, and tens of thousands of workers in her community will get a pay rise next month as well.

We know the economic conditions are challenging and that people are under the pump. The Treasury forecasts in the budget anticipate weak growth in our economy because of higher interest rates and global economic uncertainty. That's what economists are expecting to see in tomorrow's national accounts, which cover the first three months of this calendar year. We'll see the details in the data tomorrow, but the impact of the interest rate rises is showing up in the consumption data and the retail trade data that's already been released, and in building approvals and the softening of the labour market as well.

Some of the most hawkish commentary we see completely misses the fact that the economy is already soft and people are already under pressure. As I said a moment ago, our strategy is to fight inflation without smashing the economy. Our responsible, measured and methodical economic management is carefully calibrated for the combination of challenges that we confront together. It would have been absolutely mad to slash and burn in the budget in these circumstances. It would have been crazy to tighten the screws even further on a soft economy and on people who are already doing it tough.

Those opposite made a mess of the budget, and now they describe things like the indexation of the age pension as overspending. No wonder nobody takes them seriously on the economy. Our approach is much more responsible and methodical and measured than the free advice that we get from those opposite and from elsewhere. Our strategy is about putting downward pressure on inflation without crunching the economy, it's all about turning Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, getting debt down and paying less interest on the debt. It's all about investing in the industries which will power a future made in Australia. It's all about tax cuts and energy bill relief and cost-of-living help designed to ease the pressures that people are under and to support our economy when growth is weak.

We'll see the national accounts tomorrow, but it is already clear that our responsible economic management is exactly right for the combination of challenges that we confront together in the economy. If we took the approach recommended by those opposite, inflation would be higher, deficits would be bigger, Australians would be under even more pressure and the economy would be in worse shape.