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

I thank Senator Walsh for the question and really welcome a question on cost of living, as it is the most important issue facing every Australian. The Albanese government has been working since being elected to office to turn around the mess that we inherited from those opposite. We have brought inflation to almost a third of what we inherited.

I know you don't like hearing this. I know you don't like hearing that living standards were sliding, living standards were going back, inflation was going up, wages were stagnating and people were being left behind. What we have now is inflation coming down, wages going up and low unemployment, which is a fantastic outcome—to keep people in work, earning wages and having those wages grow for the first time in over a decade, because we know that those opposite sought to restrain any wages growth. Nothing made them happier than people not getting a pay rise. Nothing made that lot happier than making sure the working people in this country didn't get a pay rise. It was a key feature of their economic architecture.

We've brought inflation down. We've grown jobs by 1.1 million jobs in this term of government. We have delivered surpluses. We have lowered the Liberal debt we inherited by $177 billion, and we have lowered interest payments on that debt by $70 billion.

Opposition senators interjecting—

I know they're shouting because they don't want to hear it. They don't want to acknowledge that we have cleaned up the mess that we inherited from them. We have cleaned up the budget. We have improved the debt position. We've lowered the interest costs on that debt. And we have, at the same time, found room for cost-of-living help for every Australian.