Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

‘False,’ says Senator Abetz. Let me quote from the Treasury documents. Treasury told them:

... as the economy is running close to capacity there is a real risk that significant spending will add to inflationary pressures.

Yet they continued to spend, and spend, and spend, seeking a short-term political fix. The Leader of the Opposition has described inflationary pressures as a ‘charade’, and the shadow Treasurer refers to them as a ‘fairytale’. These statements reveal that they simply do not understand the inflation challenge that we face. We understand that inflation is a cancer eating away at the living standards of working families. Inflationary pressures have contributed to the 12 rate rises in a row despite the former government promising in 2004 to keep interest rates at record lows. In addition to the inflation problem, we are also impacted by international turbulence—