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

As I understand it, I'm asked about living standards. Living standards are measured by real household disposable income. That was going backwards by 1.7 per cent in the quarter of the election, and, on that measure, living standards fell 14 quarters under those opposite. These are facts. No amount of precooked points of order that somebody has to type out for him in order to make him look spontaneous is going to make up for the fact that living standards were falling when we came to office, real wages were falling when we came to office and inflation was three times higher under them than under us and it was rising fast on their watch.

So the point that I'm making is I'm acknowledging the pressure on people and the pressure on living standards. The choice for the parliament over and over again over the course of the last 2½ years is whether to help people with their cost of living or to ensure that people go further backwards. People would be much worse off were it not for the cost-of-living measures that we have budgeted for three times, and people would be much worse off under those opposite. We know that because they voted against the cost-of-living help. We know that because we know their record of coming after wages and Medicare, coming after housing and all of the things which matter most when it comes to living standards in our community.

This side of the House acknowledges the pressures that people are under and acknowledges that when we came to office people were going backwards. That's why we're getting inflation down, getting wages up, strengthening Medicare and investing in housing, despite the opposition of those opposite.

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