Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Jess and Russell from Alexandra Hills have told me: 'Our interest rates skyrocketed. We now have to find an additional $500 every week. The government seems indifferent to whether we can put food on our table.' 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

I hope the honourable member told Jess and Russell that he didn't want them to get any help with their electricity bills. I hope he told Jess and Russell that he thought they should get a smaller tax cut. And I hope he told Jess and Russell that he thought medicines should be more expensive, that early childhood should be more expensive, that there should be less help with rent and that they should be paid less; they should work longer for less. I hope he explained all of that to his constituents. If he didn't, he's not being especially honest. He doesn't get to wander around his electorate, in that beautiful part of South-East Queensland, and pretend that he cares about the cost of living and then come here and not support cost-of-living help. You don't get to wander around the Redlands, that stunning part of South-East Queensland, and nod your head when people tell you they're doing it tough and then come here and vote against helping them.

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

The member for Bowman on a point of order.

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just on relevance, I agree the Redlands is a wonderful part of South-East Queensland, but I wonder if the Treasurer might be interested in actually answering my question.

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

The Treasurer was mentioning the people's names in the answer. He's just got to make sure that it's directly relevant to what was asked about—the constituents. So far the Treasurer has been directly relevant. If he were talking about other people, he may not be so lucky. He has the call.

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

He asked me about his constituents, and I'm talking about his constituents. Indeed, constituents right around Australia are under substantial financial pressure, and that's why we're helping them. That's why we're helping them with a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief, cheaper early childhood education, rent assistance, getting wages moving again and all of the ways we are helping people with the cost-of-living pressures that we're under right now. We're fighting inflation, and inflation has halved since the year that we were elected, as the Prime Minister said earlier on in question time. If those opposite, especially the honourable member, really cared about the cost-of-living pressures that our constituents are under, they would support our efforts to help with the cost of living. Instead, they oppose them.