Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Smith. I've always regarded you as one of the gentlemen in this place, and you've just proven you're up to the task of not only completing a speech but jumping in to make sure the Senate continues and to give me an opportunity to respond to what you said. I'm going to talk about Senator Smith in absentia in your role over there and not to you as the chair, because I do want to make a few comments on the contribution that you've just made in this matter of public importance.

I do want to note here in the chamber with some concern that Senator Smith seems to have spent the past 18 months completely oblivious to the work of the Albanese government in tackling the inflation that does so regretfully hurt the pockets of Australia's hardest workers. That's what inflation is. It's not a vague measure of economic performance. It's a real number that eats into the wages of working Australians, and it does that when they fuel up, when they buy groceries and when they buy life-saving medicine.

Unfortunately, Senator Smith has missed the $23 billion the Albanese government has been delivering to everyday Australians to assist them through this time. Where was Senator Smith when we saved Australians $180 million on prescriptions? Where was Senator Smith when we supported 11.6 million Australians to see a GP with no out-of-pocket costs? Where was Senator Smith when we were saving families $1,700 a year on child care? I can tell you where Senator Smith was: he was with all of his colleagues, and they were opposing all of that support for the Australian people. They said no.

If the senator wants to talk inflation, let's talk factually about inflation. This is not happening in Australia in isolation. This is a global phenomenon, and no amount of wishing it were otherwise can actually create a debate that is based on fact in this place. The illegal invasion of Ukraine threw global markets into chaos everywhere and put serious inflationary pressure on a number of essential goods right across the world. By March of that year, inflation had hit 5.1 per cent and, when the Albanese government took power, it inherited inflation at a rate of 6.1 per cent. On top of that, the crisis in the Middle East and oil production cuts have continued to hit Australians already doing it tough, but in September of this year inflation dropped to 5.4 per cent, and that is because, while the coalition members and senators in this place whinge and whine, the Albanese government has been delivering for Australians. While global energy prices are soaring. the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that we've brought household rate rises down from the estimated 18.6 per cent to just 4.2 per cent. Our inflation-tackling policies have brought child care down 13.2 per cent instead of people with kids in care experiencing a 6.7 per cent increase without support.

These things really do help the Australians who are most vulnerable through the crisis that we're facing, along with all those who participate in the global economy.

Senator Smith asked when the Albanese government is going to deliver a plan for inflation. Let's be clear that part of that is tackling it responsibly, while looking after Australians. A $23 billion plan has already brought the inflation rate down by ½ per cent, and I do recall that Senator Smith may well have been with me at estimates—not the most recent one, but the previous one—when that was the evidence of the former Reserve Bank governor. The Albanese government's economic policies have received the endorsement of the International Monetary Fund, and the RBA is acknowledging the important work that the government is doing in containing inflation. All of that has been done while we have delivered a budget surplus that the previous government, the coalition, couldn't manage, even after 10 years of tightening the belts of working Australians.

We know that the LNP— (Time expired)