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

I thank Senator Roberts for the question. I disagree with it, and I don't accept that we are not working alongside the Reserve Bank. They have their job to do, which is to bring inflation back within the target band without crunching the economy. We have our job to do, which is to implement our economic plan and roll out, as I said before, the cost-of-living relief to get the budget in much better shape, which we have done, and to make much overdue investments into energy, skills and housing across the country, which are causing pressure in other areas of the economy.

In terms of the population growth, or what we've been seeing from the net overseas migration numbers in particular—we've spoken about this in this place on a number of times—we are seeing some of the results of having our borders closed, essentially, for a couple of years. So we're seeing people returning to this country, particularly international students to study, at a time when we're not seeing as many leaving the country. We are seeing that, and that's reflected in the budget numbers.

But I can absolutely guarantee, Senator Roberts, that we are working with the Reserve Bank. The decisions that we take are about not making their job harder. It's an already difficult job that they are doing, and our job is to support that in the areas that we have responsibility for, which is to deal with that cost-of-living relief, to get the budget in much better shape, which we have done, and to invest in the productive side of our economy into things like the energy transition, skills and housing, which are areas that were left neglected after a decade—