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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'm happy to explain to the shadow Treasurer the contents of his own question. His question was about the last couple of years and what we're doing to turn it around. I'm happy to tell the House and I'm happy to explain to the shadow Treasurer once again what we're doing to help people who are under the pump.

I'll remind the House, once again, that when this government came to office inflation had a six in front of it and now quarterly inflation has a three in front of it. When we came to office there were huge deficits as far as the eye could see, and we've turned two of those big Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses.

I remind the House that when we came to office, it was at the end of a decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression because low wages growth was a deliberate design feature of their economic policy. When we came to office, real wages were falling by 3.4 per cent. They're now growing again. And they're not growing again by accident; they're growing again because this is a government which recognises that one of the most effective ways to help people with the cost of living is to make it easier for them to earn more and keep more of what they earn. Absolutely central to that and absolutely central to the question that the shadow Treasurer asked are the tax cuts that come in from today. That's why it is unsurprisingly unusual that the shadow Treasurer has asked a question about living standards on a day when we are easing cost-of-living pressures in at least five different ways.

Now we all remember, and I think the Australian people remember too, that when the Prime Minister and I and this cabinet and this government went into bat for Middle Australia and for people on low and middle incomes and we changed the tax cuts—and we took a political risk in doing that—we changed those tax cuts because we wanted to see a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer at the same time as we wanted to see wages growing in our economy.

A combination of that means that Australians are better off than they would have been under those opposite. Those opposite ran up a trillion dollars in Liberal debt with almost nothing to show for it. They presided over wage stagnation and wage suppression. They skewed the tax cuts to people who were already on high incomes and we've spent a couple of years trying to clean up the mess that they left us. Where that matters very significantly is in the fact that real wages were falling when we came to office. They're growing again, and they're a big determinant of living standards in our economy at the same time as we provide this relief.

I know those opposite are unhappy today because if they had their way inflation would be even higher and people wouldn't be getting this cost-of-living help that they need and deserve. We're proud to be rolling out this cost-of-living relief, and it starts to roll out from today. (Time expired)

See this speech in context