Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Walsh for her question. We know that Australians are doing it tough at the moment and we also know that when we came to office Australians were going backwards—higher inflation, rising inflation, falling real wages and $1 trillion of Liberal debt. Labor has been working hard to clean up the mess.

The Albanese government's economic plan is all about helping people with their cost of living, while fighting inflation to bring costs down. It is good to see inflation at around one-third of what we inherited. All year in parliament, we've been focused on the No. 1 issue, which is cost of living. Despite every effort by Mr Dutton to block, we are turning promises into progress. Last week the government's Help to Buy scheme was passed by the Senate—a shared equity scheme that means 40,000 households, including teachers, childcare workers and nurses, will be able to buy a home. It is Labor that is working to lift wages and bring down costs, delivering progress on Australians' priorities.

Last night, of course, the Senate passed legislation to deliver a 15 per cent pay rise for early educators and teachers. I salute Senator Walsh and the many union members, officials and secretaries on this side who ran the campaign that enabled the Labor government to deliver it. They are the ones who delivered it. The members and the Labor Party are the ones who delivered that pay increase. We passed legislation to give extra funding to our public schools, and we are wiping $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. For someone in Senator Walsh's home state of Victoria, with a HELP debt of $27,000 they will see around 1,200—