Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Who remembers 'Back in black' and the mugs? We all remember that. We remember all the promises to deliver a surplus that those opposite made when they were in government. But what did they do? They failed on every occasion. And the good senator's contribution there once again—'Let everyone raid their superannuation; we don't want to have a secure retirement'—is a wrong, wrong approach. We're not a government that makes promises that we're not prepared to deliver on, because we have delivered on every single election promise that we've made to date.

Tonight, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver a surplus—a second surplus under the Albanese Labor government—of some $9.3 billion for this financial year. Tonight's budget will focus on easing the cost-of-living pressure felt by Australians, combating inflation and laying the foundations for future growth in our economy and our labour force. The three biggest factors shaping this budget are global uncertainty, persistent cost-of-living pressures and slowing growth.

Those opposite would have you believe that the government has been sitting idle, but, in fact, we haven't. We have stopped inflation; we have turned the corner on that. When we came into government it was six-plus per cent inflation—it now has a three in front of it. We are actually taking steps to ease the cost of living—we have already, and we have announced some of them. But there are already better wages, and so the tax cuts which will come into effect for Australian taxpayers on 1 July will mean even more for Australians. We have delivered cheaper child care, cheaper medicines and 60-day dispensing of medication. We've invested in free-free TAFE. We've given energy bill relief. Medicare urgent care clinics are already up and running, and in my home state of Tasmania we have four of them, and they are going along very well—in fact, they have been extremely popular. We have tripled the bulk-bill incentive to GPs so it makes it cheaper to see your doctor. We have been more generous with the paid parental leave and leave entitlements to close the gender pay gap, and plan to get more people into housing across this country. We have done all of this in two years.

You had 10 years, and what did you do but leave $1 trillion in debt? You left us with a huge debt. You had not invested in housing at all. You had done nothing but have a policy of keeping wages low. That's what your plan was. That was your policy—to keep wages low. We've got them moving again. We're easing the cost-of-living pressures in a real and meaningful way for all Australians.

Like the government's first two budgets, tonight's budget will be responsible, and it suits the times. Helping people with the cost of living is our government's No. 1 priority, and the centrepiece of our new assistance will be a tax cut for every one of the nation's 13.6 million taxpayers. That is everyone, and most of those will get more than they would have got under the Morrison government's planned tax cuts. In fact, people are not only going to get more; they are going to actually get a tax cut, which your previous government failed to acknowledge. For a family on an average household income of around $130,000, with one partner earning $80,000 and the other earning $50,000, their combined tax cut will be over $2,600, which is about $50 a week and $1,600 more than they would have got under the old Liberal Morrison government's plan.

For those opposite and for Mr Dutton, who want Australians to work longer for less, their policy was all about keeping wages low, whereas our policy is to ensure that people get paid for their work and that for what they get paid they keep more of that in their pocket. That's what our policy is, and that's what will be reflected when Dr Chalmers delivers his third budget tonight. I believe this will be a good Labor budget which will yet again prove that we are responsible economic managers. We are very mindful of any pressure on inflation, but we will deliver a surplus and we won't leave any Australian behind.