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

As Senator Hume would know, the RBA forecasts and the Treasury forecasts are very similar. I'll leave the bank to explain their forecast, but we certainly support the Treasury forecast. Senator Hume was quoting me in comments about our budget, and those comments that I made are accurate—that is, the budget we handed down will take pressure off inflation. That has been supported by analysis. Indeed, in the release today by the ABS, electricity prices did rise 6½ per cent, but, without the energy bill relief, the ABS points out that they would have increased 14½ per cent. And rents, if I use that example, have increased slower because of our investments in Commonwealth rent assistance—again, measures which those opposite didn't support when we brought them in. We are putting more work into rent and more effort into energy bill relief. It will reduce inflation and it will support households. We are doing all of this because we need to keep downward pressure on inflation, but we also need to support households at the same time. They are the responsible, measured decisions that we took in our budget. They will put downward pressure on inflation. Inflation remains higher than we would like, and that is why our measures in the budget are targeted at putting downward pressure on inflation but supporting households with the main issue that they're facing at the moment, which is addressing cost-of-living pressures.