Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Sheldon, for the question. Today's ABS release of the consumer price index for the June quarter 2022 has shown that inflation has increased by 6.1 per cent over the past year and 1.8 per cent in the June quarter. It reinforces the difficult cost of living challenge for Australian households. Today's news will be very confronting to many, many households around the country who are already feeling the pinch of finding extra dollars for the increasing costs of living.

We've been upfront with Australians since moving into government. We inherited a very challenging set of economic circumstances: rising inflation, rising interest rates, low wage growth and nine years of failed policy agenda, particularly in the area of energy. No doubt, through the course of question time, we will be able to list many more of those failures. But this is the major economic challenge facing the new government. It will be challenging for households in the months ahead, but we are determined, working hard every day, to look at ways to ease pressure on households and ensure that household incomes can keep up with some of those rising costs.

Today's data shows that the most significant rises were in new dwelling purchases by owner-occupiers at 5.6 per cent; in fuel, at 4.2 per cent; and furniture at 7 per cent. Annual trimmed mean inflation increased to 4.9 per cent. Australians know that inflation is high and getting higher. They feel it every day and they don't need the ABS dataset to tell them that. They see it when they're in the supermarket, when they're filling up the car or when they're paying their bills. The difficult reality is inflation is predicted to get worse before it gets better. (Time expired)