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

I thank Senator Pratt for the question and for her interest in the budget and in our nation's economy. We can see from today's monthly CPI data that it does show that inflation was steady at 3.4 per cent in the year to February 2024. This was below market expectation, and inflation remains at its lowest level in over two years. So we are seeing inflation moderate and continue to moderate. We've got real wages growing. We've got low unemployment. Monthly inflation is much lower than the 6.1 per cent it was at the election, and quarterly inflation is now at 0.6 per cent, a third of the 2.1 per cent we saw just before the election. This data shows that inflation was higher under the former government and it continues to moderate under us. We are seeing—