Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was told that they couldn't find a Liberal to finish the last two minutes. It's the Liberal and National parties running out of puff again. They couldn't find a speaker to fill the gap, so I'm happy to help by filling in a little bit of time, and I hope that it's an opportunity for a moment of self-reflection over there.

I thought I'd take the minute that remains to me to remind the team over here that the Albanese government is engaged in real, practical action on the cost of living. It's acting on taxes by giving tax cuts to every single working Australian. It's acting by putting downward pressure on prices for electricity. It's supporting working families. Childcare costs are down because of the Albanese government. We've had two budget surpluses in a row and downward pressure on inflation.

The alternative approach from this lot is to leave working Australians on their own to face rising costs and rising interest rates, They gave us $300 billion worth of cuts to services for veterans, $300 billion worth of cuts to health care and $300 billion worth of cuts to the services offered to senior Australians. That is the hard, austere, angry, arrogant approach that symbolises what Mr Dutton and Mr Taylor have in store for ordinary Australians.