Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I can understand why the shadow Treasurer is so confused—because the fiscal discipline that we showed last night is completely unfamiliar, completely foreign to those opposite. Those opposite, when they were in office, left behind this bin fire of rorts and waste and economic mismanagement, which was the hallmark of their almost decade in office. Those opposite promised a surplus in their first year and every year thereafter. They printed the back in black mugs. They did everything except actually deliver a surplus. Now, in their humiliation, they get up here and they ask these questions about the inflationary impact of the budget.

I'll explain it one more time for the shadow Treasurer, who has trouble getting his head around some pretty basic concepts in our economy. What we've done, particularly with the cost-of-living package, but more broadly with the budget we handed down last night, was to make sure that it was carefully calibrated and carefully designed to take the edge off cost-of-living pressures, rather than add to inflation in our economy. And that's what guided the decisions in the cost-of-living package, guided our decisions in the growth package and guided our decisions when it came to the fiscal responsibility that we showed in the budget.

If those opposite want to quote economists, Bill Evans from Westpac, a very respected economist, said, 'I don't expect them to put upward pressure on interest rates.' Alan Oster said he thinks the budget is 'broadly neutral' over the coming years. The economists at Citibank: 'broadly neutral' as well. Stephen Halmarick from the Commonwealth Bank said, 'The move to surplus in 2022-23 represents a fiscal contraction that is helpful in moderating the inflation pulse'.

When it comes to the spending in the year after, a big chunk of the spending that we had to do in 2023-24 was because those opposite announced ongoing programs but only funded them in a temporary way, so we had to clean up the mess. We had to clean up the mess. Those opposite left a steaming pile of fiscal irresponsibility, and we had to clean it up. We take responsibility for doing that.

We made progress in a budget last night which will take the pressure off inflation, rather than add to it. That is the considered view of the Treasury. That is the considered view of a number of economists, including those that I just quoted. Those opposite are going to have to do much better than that.

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