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

I thank Senator Walsh for the question. As I said in my answer to Senator Duniam, and I repeat, the Albanese government's No. 1 priority remains addressing the inflation and cost-of-living challenge that we are seeing across the economy. We have a very well calibrated plan that doesn't make the inflation challenge worse but materially supports families and households across Australia who are feeling the pinch of higher prices. It's a plan that we've been working on since we took office in May last year—and, indeed, before, with the election commitments that we took to the Australian people. That plan includes energy bill relief; the cheaper child care that my colleague Minister Watt outlined; the commitments we have included in our budget, including increased rent assistance; tripling the Medicare bulk-billing rate; the decisions we've taken around cheaper medicines and boosting income support payments, particularly for those relying totally on those income payments, like JobSeeker and supporting parents payment; fee-free TAFE training; building more affordable homes; expanding paid parental leave to give families more choice; and getting wages moving again. These are all elements of our plan to make sure we can deal with the inflation challenge and provide essential cost-of-living support whilst families and households across Australia need it. We've done this at the same time as we've delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years. We've seen wages grow at the fastest rate in a decade and we've seen over 550,000 jobs created since we came to government, a record for any new government ever.

What have we seen from those opposite? They said no to energy bill relief. They said no to the Housing Australia Future Fund. They said no to halving the cost of medicines. (Time expired)