Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is committed to a stronger economy and a fairer society, and the budget will reflect that. We on this side have been working hard to clean up the mess left by the Liberals and Nationals. They failed to manage the budget and they drove up debt. Tonight's budget will be a budget in the best Labor tradition: a budget focused on delivering cost-of-living relief now, including a $14.6 billion package of targeted relief for household energy bills, cheaper medicines, expanded access to the parenting payment, and more. Obviously, much more will be revealed tonight, but I can say that this budget will be delivered in the most responsible way so that it will not drive up inflation.

We've also worked to ensure that this budget invests in the future growth of our economy, with cleaner and cheaper energy at the core of that strategy, in sharp contrast to what those opposite delivered. Our budget is built on a foundation of responsible economic management—a stark contrast to those opposite. Tonight's budget will include billions of dollars cleaning up the mess left to us by the Liberals and the Nationals. Unlike those opposite, Labor is not prepared to leave vital government functions unfunded, including biosecurity, disaster management, management of radioactive waste, digital health and online safety. Unlike those opposite, we're not happy to leave national collecting institutions to crumble or ignore the Liberals' chronic underinvestment in our national parks or flood-warning infrastructure. We had to address the previous government's failure to provision a single dollar for the Olympic and Paralympic Games—not a single dollar. I'm hoping the Queenslanders might cheer a government that's backing in Queensland when it comes to the Olympics and Paralympic Games. We are building on the $4.1 billion in the October budget we had to spend to resolve legacy— (Time expired)