Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll just talk a little bit about inflation, real disposable income and the cost-of-living matters that were raised today. But I think it's important to start by correcting something that my friend and colleague Senator McGrath said, which is that this government has never said that people have never had it better. In fact, the constant refrain both today during answers to questions and more generally has been a recognition that Australians are in a cost-of-living crisis. But the cost-of-living crisis is not ahistorical, and you don't need to go back to Menzies or to Cook—convenient exaggerations—you only need to go back to Scott Morrison. When we talk about the source of the inflationary problem, the inflation that has driven up prices for Australians and has made their disposable income far lower, it is the spending and economic policies of the Morrison government.

Now, that's not to say that there isn't some slack deserved by the previous government in relation to dealing with COVID. Of course there is some slack required. But, when those opposite try to sheet home an inflationary problem that was created in those circumstances to this government, it's important to go back and actually look at some of those facts. Some of that spending was justified and some of it was profligate. But Scott Morrison delivered deficits in the vicinity of $161 billion, 7.8 per cent of GDP. Government spending was a record at the time, of 32.1 per cent of GDP. There was some $40 billion spent in excess of what was required in the JobKeeper program—that is, $40 billion handed out to companies that didn't actually need it. It's that lack of fiscal discipline, that lack of proper economic and financial planning, that meant that inflation was 6.1 per cent in May 2022 and moving upwards. That trajectory peaked in December 2022 at 7.8 per cent.

For all the criticism we heard for most of last year, inflation has trended down under this government for most of its term in office. The Reserve Bank of Australia told the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living last year that inflation has significantly moderated across the last 2½ years. We have, in the first part of 2025, headline inflation in its target range for the first time in a long time, and underlying or trimmed mean inflation with a three in front of it and projected to return to band in either mid or late 2025. Those inflation numbers and the trajectories tell a story of an improving inflation situation, but they don't address the fact that, while inflation is moderating, prices for people remain incredibly high.

My friend Senator McGrath spoke about real disposable income, which is a function of income and expenses, and the effect of inflation on those two things. But, at a time when we know Australians are doing it tough, when they need that extra income, there's something fundamentally wrong—it's a kind of duplicity—with saying that the Labor government doesn't care about it but the Opposition does, in circumstances where that opposition has voted against policies and legislation that have delivered wage increases, including wage increases for those on minimum wage—that is, the very poorest of the poor. There were 2.6 million Australians who received multiple minimum-wage increases during the term of this government. It is estimated that, based on the opposition to wage increases, tax cuts and energy bill relief that this government has implemented, working Australians would be $7,200 per annum worse off. That's real money. That's money that has been delivered by policies that were opposed by the coalition or would have been done differently by the coalition. That's more money into their pocket, reduced expenses and increased income.

Wage growth across the economy is more than four per cent, and that's now for multiple quarters in a row. If you're doing it tough out there, you need to know that Labor has moderated inflation, has increased your wages and is providing some relief in relation to the higher cost of things. Those are real solutions.