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

I thank Senator Walsh for that supplementary. As a government we welcome solid wages growth after our predecessors spent the best part of a decade deliberately suppressing wages. Today's data further demonstrates that Labor is the party of strong economic management. We have delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years, taking the pressure off inflation and creating a more stable economic environment conducive to wages growth. We have returned an average of 87 per cent of revenue across our first two budgets, compared to 40 per cent under the former government, and the $40 billion in savings that we've identified across both budgets has allowed us to reprioritise spending to investments that deliver that cost-of-living relief, secure our essential services and boost the productivity of our economy—again in stark contrast to those opposite, who used robodebt as the way of generating savings for their budget bottom line, and we know the history attached to that.