Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that Australian households and businesses are doing it tough right now. Whether it's global cuts to oil production, the war in Ukraine or the conflict in the Middle East, the challenges coming at us from around the world are being felt around the kitchen tables of hardworking Australians.

That is why addressing inflation is the centrepiece of our economic policy. We are making responsible economic decisions while targeting spending at those Australians who need it most. We're making the responsible decision to reorient the budget from wasteful spending to productive spending; we're making the responsible decision to bank the first surplus in 15 years, returning revenues to the budget bottom line; and we've made the responsible decision to have infrastructure spending independently reviewed so that we can ensure that infrastructure is deliverable, provides value for money and is targeted at those projects that Australians need.

You don't have to take my word for it, and you don't have to take the word of anyone on this side of the chamber about this, because the International Monetary Fund has backed the Albanese government's responsible budget management and highlighted our policies to address cost-of-living pressures. The IMF have concluded independently that fiscal and monetary policy are working together to address inflationary pressures. Michele Bullock, recently appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank, said the same. Indeed, it feels like I was at a different round of Senate estimates hearings to the one my colleague the deputy chair of the Senate economics committee was at. That's because Governor Bullock was asked by Senator Hume at estimates two weeks ago what more government could be doing in fiscal policy, and these were the words Governor Bullock responded with:

I actually think that what they're doing at the moment is good.

When Senator Hume asked if it was 'enough', the governor responded that indeed it was enough and that the decision to bank revenue and not spend it was very positive and, in fact, helpful. I'll repeat those words from Governor Bullock:

I actually think that what they're doing at the moment is good.

The causes of inflation are well known at household tables around the country: war and, most recently, petrol prices and broken supply chains, which have been caused in no small part by a wasted decade from those opposite, who decided to throw manufacturing off a cliff and stop making things here instead of backing it in and investing in it. That's why we haven't wasted a day in investing in rebuilding Australian manufacturing by investing in the National Reconstruction Fund and in training and skills to address skills shortages across the economy. As the Treasurer said on budget night, our task was to restrain spending to check inflation while doing our best to help people struggling to make ends meet. Our cost-of-living package was targeted to do just that, being a comprehensive plan that's delivering around $23 billion of support targeted to where it's needed most, from electricity bill relief to cheaper child care, rent assistance, Medicare bulk-billing, cheaper medicines, income support payments, fee-free TAFE, more affordable homes, expanding paid parental leave and getting wages moving again. Just this month, we've tripled bulk-billing incentives to support 11.6 million eligible Australians, including children, pensioners and other concession card holders, to access a GP with no out-of-pocket costs. We know that the relief is working. ABS data shows that, without our energy rebates, prices in the September quarter would have been 14 per cent higher. The cost of child care has come down in the same quarter and, without our efforts, would have risen by 6.7 per cent.

Whether it's the RBA governor, the Treasury secretary, the ABS or the IMF, they all point to economic policy helping to drive down inflation. We are taking a strong and measured approach, we are getting the budget back on track, we are returning revenues to the bottom line and we're targeting much-needed cost-of-living relief to those who need it the most. The experts tell us that it is working. Our economic plan is delivering. So we will continue to invest sustainably in the future and provide the sensible economic management that the country needs.