Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

That contribution by Senator Chandler has completely ignored the last nine years of her government. On 21 May the house of cards that was your government came tumbling down, exposed for what it was: a government of waste, rorts and lost opportunities—and quite frankly, that's being kind to their government; that's being kind to nine years of a Liberal coalition government. Don't forget, we had 'sports rorts', we had cuts to aged-care spending and of course we had cuts to real wages—boasted about by the government of the day; they boasted about the fact that it was a deliberate design in their economic plan. They did haven't a plan. What they had was a Prime Minister who was focused on delivering for their mates, focused on rorting public moneys to go into areas where they thought it would be best for a political return, not an economic plan to put this country on the right path.

The Albanese government understands that people are doing it tough. They also understand that, as Senator Gallagher said in her response to the question today, that we have inherited from the Liberal opposition a cost-of-living crisis. You can't ignore that fact. So, no matter what Senator Chandler wants to talk about in terms of the plan that her government had, everyone knows—the Australian people know; that's why they punted them on 21 May; that's why the former government are on that side, because the Australian people got sick of their money being wasted—that they had no plan, just waste, rorts and lost opportunities. So yes, we inherited a cost-of-living crisis from those opposite—an economy and a budget in complete shambles. That's what we inherited.

The Albanese government does understand that Australians are doing it tough and understands the current cost-of-living pressures that have been built up over many years. But we have acted quickly, and Senator Gallagher, in her response to the question, mentioned some of the initiatives that the Labor government is putting in place. So we do say—and we're very up-front about this—that we can't solve the nine years of neglect and decay overnight. But it's our task to do what we can do responsibly to help Australians deal with these pressures in the short term and build a more resilient economy that is better able to withstand future shocks.

That's why we are making child care cheaper through our $5 billion investment in the October budget, and that's why we're making medicines cheaper, and that's why we successfully argued for a minimum wage increase and why we're starting work to get wages moving again—unlike the now opposition, who boast about keeping wages low. I mean, it is the very issue that goes to the heart of the family household budget, and they come in here and try to say that it's all our fault! A trillion dollars of debt, an economy and a budget in shambles, a cost-of-living crisis that we inherited from them—the gall! We have argued successfully, as I've said, and our job is to start to get wages moving again.