Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government helping to ease cost-of-living pressures? How will this action help Australian households, and what approaches have been rejected?

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

I'm certain I speak for the whole parliament when I say how wonderful it is to have the member for Gilmore back here on deck, fighting fit and fighting for her community on the South Coast of New South Wales.

Tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer to help with the cost of living are now just one week away. These are the tax cuts that those opposite said they would roll back. These are the tax cuts that the Leader of the Opposition called for an election over. These are the tax cuts which mean an extra $36 a week on average or, for households with kids, an extra $63 a week. Next Monday, we'll bring five different kinds of cost-of-living help from the budget: a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, cheaper medicines, a pay rise for millions of workers on awards and two extra weeks of paid parental leave for new parents.

All of this begins from next week, from 1 July. That's because we know that people are under pressure. We'll see that in the inflation numbers later this week. We also know that some of this pressure is felt at the checkout, and that's why we're making the food and grocery code mandatory. It's why we've got bigger penalties for supermarkets who do the wrong thing. It's why we've got better avenues for people to make complaints and have them resolved.

Our changes to the food and grocery code are all about a fair go for farmers and families. It's all about ensuring that supermarkets do the right thing by their suppliers and by their customers, and it's part of our broader effort to make our supermarkets more competitive. This is how you manage the economy in a responsible and methodical way. Here the contrast couldn't be clearer, because you don't get the cost of living down in the 2020s by building nuclear reactors in the second half of the 2030s. That's why the Leader of the Opposition's nuclear shambles is economic insanity. It will take longer. It will push up prices. It will cost more. It will create investor uncertainty, and it will squander the vast economic and industrial opportunities that we have as a nation in the context of the global net zero transformation. This is the risk posed by those opposite in our energy markets and in our economy.

As the inspired appointment made earlier today shows, our approach to renewable energy is the mainstream view of sensible people on both sides of the political divide. The Leader of the Opposition's view on nuclear is risky extremism at its worst, and that's why it's falling down all around him. We are managing the economy in a responsible and methodical way. That means rolling out cost-of-living help, fighting inflation and repairing the budget without smashing the economy. Our tax cuts from Monday and our new food and grocery code are part of that effort.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I want to extend, on behalf of the coalition, all the very best to the member for Gilmore. We welcome her back, and we're glad to see she's healthy and back in this place.