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

I thank the senator for the question. And it's an important question because it's about how households manage with increasing costs not just from mortgages but from going to the shops, filling their cars up—the prices of everything are going up.

The areas that we think we can make the most difference as a government—obviously there are the short-term additional payments that were made through the former government's budget, which are still going through the system. But where we believe the most responsible investments can be made to support households so that they can manage some of these costs are by trying to lower power prices, lower childcare costs, getting wages moving and dealing with some of the supply chain blockages and disruption that we've seen. That's actually the areas where we, as a government, can make a difference. I think everybody understands the challenges that people are facing and that they can't be fixed overnight, but we're a responsible government that's going to make those investments to help over the longer term.