Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We believe that the government should step in with targeted, strategic relief for those who need it. We want to make sure that we reduce the waste within the budget, that we look into every single crack and crevice to see how we can make sure that every single dollar of government spend is absolutely the right thing to do, that it is totally defensible and that integrity is critical. And that is what we're doing. Have we got to a point of saying, 'Yes, look, everything's fixed'? No, not at all. There is a long way to go. But the budget that Senator Bragg is talking about in this motion takes a significant step on that road to recovery to make a difference to those people who desperately need it, to make our economy stronger for the whole of the country, to impact every single Australian and to have a stronger, more sustainable economy, and that's exactly what we've done. Bearing in mind the differences we have, sometimes our way of doing it is because we're in government and your way of doing it is for when you're in government, and I'd just like to say that Labor is in government now. This is our plan, this is the plan that we took to the election and this is what the majority of the country voted for.

I'm going to go back to the inflation piece, just briefly, because I saw an interesting article this morning from someone who you wouldn't say was a close ally of the Labor Party or the Labor government, and that's Terry McCrann. In this morning's article, he said:

The budget is not going to increase inflation and force the Reserve Bank to whack us with more interest rate hikes.

He then went on to say:

Yes, the RBA is likely to hike rates … But any such rate hikes will have nothing—and I mean, nothing, nada, zip—to do with the budget.

He then goes on to say a whole range of other, entertaining things. But the point here—what I'm trying to get at—is we have a different ideological perspective and we need to just accept that.

Listening to the spin, the scaremongering and the bother is really frustrating. It is okay to just say, 'Well, we disagree with the approach you are taking but we get that this is an important thing that needs to get done.' And, while we are about it—I'll reference friends over here in the Greens party, because $10 billion is not enough in their world—$10 billion is enough for right now. If that is not enough, if the crisis increases and we find that isn't enough, we can do something else. But right here, right now, we have to do something about the housing crisis and the best thing to do right here, right now, is to pass the bill. The longer we drag this out, the more filibustering there is, the longer people have to wait, because you don't build a house overnight. It takes a while. So I would just plead with the people in this chamber to look deeper than the spin and the bother. What we're doing here with this budget is sensible, is responsible and is taking that first strategic and significant step to protect this country, to build the housing we need, to support the people who need it, and to strengthen and build our economy.