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

I thank Senator Sheldon for the supplementary. These are the key priorities that we've been working on since coming to government. Again, as Senator Wong outlined in her answers to questions earlier, we inherited an inflation challenge that was increasing. It was about 6.1 per cent. It peaked at 7.8 per cent at the end of that calendar year, and we have been getting it down. We've been absolutely focused on how we can bring inflation down in a way that supports households that are doing it tough.

That's why we have been looking at initiatives like energy bill relief, investments in child care, free TAFE and more money going into Medicare. All of these are areas where investments are felt at the hip pocket but don't add to the inflation challenge that we have been trying to manage. Getting costs down, getting wages moving and getting inflation back to where it should be has been a key focus of our economic plan. The data we are seeing in relation to inflation is very promising. (Time expired)