Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. President of the Queensland Association of State School Principals, Patrick Murphy, has told the Senate's cost-of-living inquiry that parents are increasingly having to withdraw their kids from school opportunities because they are struggling to make ends meet. Mr Murphy said, 'We're seeing 60 per cent of kids not going on camps and excursions.' With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families are going backwards?

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

We're fighting for Australians doing it tough. We're fighting for people who deserve a tax cut. We're fighting for people who deserve a bit of help with their electricity bills. We're fighting for better wages and getting real wages growing again. We're fighting for cheaper medicines. We're fighting for cheaper early childhood education. We're fighting for more rent assistance. We're fighting to ensure that the people who need and deserve this parliament's help are getting it.

I take the issues that Patrick has raised seriously; I take him seriously. Any decent local member worth their salt understands that people are under pressure right now, and that's why we're doing what we can to help people. That's why it beggars belief that those opposite oppose our cost-of-living measures. They called for an election over a tax cut for every taxpayer. They don't support cheaper energy. They don't support cheaper early childhood education. They don't support rent assistance. They don't support cheaper medicines. And they don't support getting wages moving again. Well, we do, because, more than acknowledging the pressures that people are under, we're doing something about it.