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

I'm trying to answer your question, Senator Birmingham, if you would stop peppering me. You can see the inflation forecasts in the budget. The forecasts are outlined in the budget. You can see, when it comes to energy bill relief—the package you voted against, the caps that you voted against and the relief that you voted against—that it actually has a downward pressure on inflation of three-quarters of a per cent. And the other measures that we are taking, carefully calibrated over four years, do not have a negative impact on inflation. That is the advice the government has and that is represented in the budget papers.

It might be an uncomfortable truth for those opposite to actually find a government that wants to do a number of things in the budget, that actually wants to show a bit of compassion, deal with some of the pressures that people are feeling and be responsible about how we manage the budget. I think that is probably a foreign concept to you. I can see how it is challenging you. But we are able, with the approach we have taken to this budget of returning money back to budget—cleaning up the mess, making investments—to make sure that the measures are carefully targeted not to add to inflation.