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

When we came to government, inflation was high and rising, real wages were falling, living standards were declining and people were going backwards. That is what was occurring under them. Since we came to government, inflation is down, wages are up and unemployment is down. We've seen inflation at almost a third of what it was at the election and falling. We've seen real wages growing again, living standards rising and the lowest average unemployment rate for any government in 50 years. We've seen the creation of more than 1.1 million jobs. It is the case that Australians are doing it tough, but what they have is a government that wants Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn.

The alternative of course is a party that wants taxpayers to pick up a $10 billion tab for the boss's lunch. Instead of fee-free TAFE, they want free lunches. Fee-free TAFE—'No, we don't want that,' they say. 'We want free lunches.' I mean, for $10 billion you can employ 5.6 million people more in free TAFE. We could triple the HECS debt relief we delivered for three million Australians. It is three times more than the cost of the energy bill relief, which is saving households $300 a year and $325 for small businesses. Now, this gives you a sense of the priorities of Mr Dutton and those opposite.