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

Well, I think it has been acknowledged by everyone other than those opposite that there are significant global challenges that have presented across the world. In fact, many of the OECD countries have seen at least a negative quarter of growth. Australia has been fortunate in that we have not seen that, but we acknowledge that the impact of those global pressures—the challenges, the price pressures and higher interest rates—are having an effect on growth in our economy. The government take responsibility for an economic plan that is focused on ensuring that inflation continues to moderate but where we are helping households out while they're doing it tough. That's why our cost-of-living approach and our budget management approach, where we've found savings and delivered surpluses, all help in the inflation challenge.

But we're not pretending that people aren't doing it tough, which is why we implemented all of those cost-of-living measures, many of which those opposite opposed. Whether it be energy bill rebates, whether it be the tax cuts that they wanted to fight an election over, whether it be our investments in early education and care or whether it be our housing agenda, they were all opposed by those opposite. These are the decisions we've taken, and I believe the national accounts showed that those decisions were made in the right interests of the economy, that we have managed to continue to grow, albeit slowly, and that the government's decisions have supported growth in the economy at an important time.