Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I'll explain it for the shadow Treasurer. Under you, when inflation was going up and wages were going down, people were worse off. Now inflation's going down and wages are going up. That's what lifts people up, and that is what we are achieving. We understand that we inherited a system where inflation had a six in front of it. We know that people were really struggling. Interest rates started to go up under them. And we know that global inflation has had an impact as well, due to range of measures, including the long tail of COVID.

That is why we have taken action. That is why we produced a tax cut for every taxpayer. Without our tax cuts, 84 per cent of taxpayers would have been worse off. Under their system, that they maintain support for and that they said they would go back to, 84 per cent of taxpayers would have been worse off and 2.9 million taxpayers wouldn't have seen a cent. Without our cheaper medicines—that they opposed—Australians would have been $1 billion worse off, and the most vulnerable Australians are amongst those. Without our Medicare urgent care clinics, 1.1 million Australians wouldn't have got a free doctor's appointment. We know why they opposed it. It's because the Leader of the Opposition, when he was health minister, said that there were too many free health appointments. Medicare was bad because it was free, which is why he tried to introduce a GP tax, just as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has said that free TAFE is not valued because it's free—because you don't value it unless you pay for it. If it wasn't for us, 5.8 million extra bulk-billed appointments wouldn't have happened. Importantly, to follow-up on the former minister and his hard work on IR, 2.6 million award wage workers would be worse off. Remember, during the last campaign, they opposed a one dollar an hour increase and said it was going to destroy the entire economy. We said that we absolutely would support it—as we have—not once, not twice, but three times with consecutive minimum wage increases. (Time expired)

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