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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Core inflation in Australia is higher than that of every major advanced economy. It is higher than in the US, the UK, Canada, the Euro area, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. With falling disposable income and sticky high inflation hurting households, why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the Reserve Bank while Australian families go backwards?

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

The member for Page is warned. No-one is to interject before an answer begins.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm asked about international comparisons, and I can't do better than to quote Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, who said this on 6 August 2024:

We didn't go as high as the Fed. Our interest rates are lower I would observe than the Bank of England, the US Fed, Bank of New Zealand, all have interest rates up above 5%. Bank of Canada did too. We don't.

The peak headline hit on an annual basis at 7.8 per cent in Australia. That was before we came into government. It is now half. We have halved inflation from where it was in 2022. In the UK, it is 11.1 per cent; in New Zealand, 7.3; in Canada, 8.1; in the US, 9.9. The current cash rate here in Australia is 4.35 per cent. In the UK, it's five. In New Zealand, it's 5.25, and, in the United States, it is 5.5. The cash rate under the Leader of the Opposition as Assistant Treasurer was 6.75.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

The member for Deakin will cease interjecting. The member for Moreton—order!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Deakin thinks it was funny that his leader was once Assistant Treasurer. The joke was on the Australian people—

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

The member for Deakin will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because the bizarre joke is that those people come in here when inflation was double what it is today when we came into office—

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

The member for Barker will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

when employment has seen some 980,000 jobs, when we see wages increasing rather than decreasing, which is what those opposite wanted to see, when we see the workforce participation rate at record levels, when we see the gender pay gap at a record low of 11.5 per cent, and when we see the economy, of course, under us, experiencing modest growth. It's modest growth but growth nonetheless. If those opposite had their way and implemented the more than $300 billion of cuts, we would've seen a devastation in our economy had we followed what they wanted to do.