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

Thank you to the member for Gilmore for her question and for the dedicated way that she represents that beautiful community of hers on the South Coast of New South Wales. We understand that Australians are under pressure, we know that our economy is slowing and we know that the global environment is volatile. That's why we're rolling out cost-of-living help. It's why we recognise that there is more work to do to clean up the mess that we inherited and build the kind of economy that our people need and deserve.

One of the reasons those opposite don't ask me any questions about the economy is that, under them, inflation would be higher, wages would be lower and there would be more debt as well. They don't ask me about the economy because yesterday brought welcome news on wages and today brought welcome news on jobs. They don't ask about the economy or about cost of living because they couldn't care less about the pressures that people are under in our community. They don't ask questions about the economy because they know they left a deficit of $78 billion, which we turned into a surplus of $22 billion.

They don't ask about the economy because they know that gross debt was peaking at 45 per cent under them, and it will be 36 per cent under us. They don't ask because they know that interest costs are $44 billion lower because of our efforts. They don't ask about the economy because inflation, in quarterly terms, was 2.1 per cent under them and it's now 1.2 per cent under us. They don't ask about the economy because average wage growth under them was just over two per cent and now it's around four per cent. They don't ask about the economy because real wages were falling 3.4 per cent under them—

See this speech in context