Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Government MPs certainly understand that inflation and interest rates are affecting cost of living and squeezing household budgets. They certainly understand that this government, through both of its budgets, is acting to help households and small businesses get through this difficult period. The Australian people also understand the reality that neither side of politics is to blame for the recent bout of inflation and interest rates. The Australian people certainly understand that interest rates are determined independently by the Reserve Bank of Australia, not by the Liberal Party and not by the Labor Party. They are determined independently by the Reserve Bank based on market economic conditions.

The reality is that there are many reasons why inflation has increased in Australia over the recent years. Those facts relate to supply chain constraints associated with the COVID pandemic, increased government expenditure that was undertaken by all governments throughout the world to support jobs when economies were being locked down—and there was bipartisan support for those policies in this parliament—and, of course, the recent effect that the war in Ukraine has had on international energy markets. They are the reasons why inflation increased over recent years, and they are the reasons why the Reserve Bank, independent of government, had to act on those factors.

It's a fact that Australia is not the only economy in the world that is experiencing inflation. It's been a widespread effect of the pandemic worldwide. New Zealand, the United States, Canada, most of Europe and most of Asia have all been experiencing inflation increases and interest rate increases. All of these nations have also had increases in their interest rates, most of them at a higher rate and a higher level than Australia. In the United States, in Canada, in the UK and in New Zealand, interest rates increased at a much higher pace than they did in Australia and have been at higher levels than they are in Australia.

The reality regarding inflation and interest rates is that they predominantly relate to the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine and that no political party or government is to blame for that. But what the Australian people do want to know, and where political parties do have a responsibility, is what you are going to do about it and what policies you will develop and implement to assist households and small businesses to get through this difficult period.

It is here where there is a stark contrast between the approach of the Albanese Labor government and the Liberal coalition. The government is not seeking to come in here and move juvenile motions and shout at each other and point fingers across the chamber or, indeed, to blame the previous government. We're not seeking to do that at all. What we are doing is developing and implementing policies that will assist households and small businesses to get through this difficult period and hopefully see pressure taken off inflation over time and interest rates come down. That is the approach that we've taken since day one after the election last year.

There are a number of policies that we're implementing to assist households. When it comes to energy prices, we put price caps on gas and coal prices. We've partnered with the states to provide energy relief in the form of household and small business rebates. What was the approach of those opposite when we brought those policies into the parliament? They voted against them. Ordinarily, that's okay; that's alright. You can vote against them, but you've got to have an alternative, you see. You've got to have a policy that you're going to put in place as an alternative. I still don't understand or know what their policy alternative is. They're only going to come in here and vote against our policies for pure personal political interests. They're putting their political interests ahead of the welfare of the Australian people, and that is what is wrong with this opposition.

When it comes to health care, we've introduced policies that reduce the cost of medicines: reducing the co-payment and introducing 60-day dispensing of stable, dependable pharmaceuticals on the advice of a general practitioner. This is providing real relief, particularly to people who rely on medicines on a daily basis. What is the approach of those opposite? To vote against it and to rubbish the policy.

We all know that families are dealing with the cost of child care and that it's a big impost on household budgets. The Albanese government has a policy to assist Australians and to reduce some of that pressure on household budgets with our cheaper childcare policy that begins in less than a month's time. We will increase the rebate for the childcare subsidy, and we're removing the cap that ensures that there's a disincentive for families to continue working on a weekly basis. What's been the policy of those opposite? To oppose it but not to offer an alternative.

When it comes to health care, we know that the cost of seeing a doctor increased dramatically under the previous government because they had frozen the bulk-billing rebate for GPs over a number of years, forcing many general practitioners to charge a co-payment for a visit to the doctor. This government has responded to that in our recent budget by tripling the bulk-billing incentive for children and concession card holders, again providing real policy relief for Australians doing it tough around their healthcare costs. Housing is a massive issue in Australia at the moment, and we have policies to deal with it. In the budget, we increased rent assistance for the most vulnerable Australians, who are having difficulties paying their rent. We've got a housing future fund that's aimed at building 30,000 new houses throughout the country, predominantly in the social and low- to middle-income areas. Again, that was opposed by the opposition, who had no alternative policy in place and nothing as an alternative to what the government is offering. In energy efficiency, we're increasing rebates for households and small businesses to ensure that they can install appliances that reduce their energy costs. We're even introducing vehicle emissions standards to ensure that Australia keeps pace with the rest of the world and that we can reduce the cost of motoring for Australians over time. These are but some of the policies that the Albanese government is introducing and implementing to help Australians deal with inflation and reduce the impact of interest rate rises. But what are the opposition's policies? We don't know—and the Australian people don't know—because the opposition haven't announced anything.

Another important factor when it comes to the cost of living is incomes. People want to make sure that their incomes are increasing so that they can deal with the cost-of-living pressure that they're facing. The approach of the previous government was to do everything they could to dampen the real incomes of Australians. Do you remember when penalty rates were cut? What did the previous government do? They supported it, while Labor opposed it. Do you remember when minimum wage cases were undertaken under the previous government? Did they put in a submission supporting a wage increase for low-income workers? No, they opposed it. In the recent minimum wage cases that have been undertaken by the Fair Work Commission, you've had a government that actually supports them and that puts in a submission saying, 'We support a wage increase for low-paid workers,' in stark contrast to the previous government. We've agreed to fund an aged-care workforce wage increase, as recommended by the royal commission, and we're fixing the bargaining system to ensure that Australians have the opportunity to bargain in their workplaces.

The government is also taking responsibility when it comes to government expenditure. Any revenue upgrades that we received in the recent budget could have been spent on shiny announcements by the government, but we didn't do that. We took the responsible approach, with 87 per cent of revenue upgrades being returned to the budget in both our recent budgets. We won't be pouring fuel on the fire of inflation on this side. That led the Reserve Bank governor to say: 'I don't think that the budget is adding to inflation. It's actually reducing inflation in the next financial year.' That's the view of the independent Reserve Bank. The government takes these inflation challenges very seriously. We're implementing policies to assist Australian households and small businesses, and we are showing government restraint. What you'll hear from the opposition is a lot of yelling, screaming and finger-pointing, but what you won't hear is one policy to assist Australian households and small businesses to get through this difficult period.

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