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

There's no member of this House more in touch with their local community than the member for McEwen. I thank him for his question. Since this House last met, we have had some important reminders of the progress that Australians are making together in our economy. We have spoken a lot about housing today and we did yesterday as well. A really important part of that recent progress has been made on interest rates. When we came to office, interest rates were already rising because inflation was much higher than it is now and it was rising fast. Now, inflation has fallen substantially and in a sustained and welcome way. We'll get more monthly inflation data on Wednesday. That monthly figure usually bounces around a bit, but anything in the twos will be a handy reminder of how far we have come since the days of inflation higher than six per cent and rising when we came to office.

That progress on inflation has given the Reserve Bank the confidence and the comfort that they needed to cut interest rates not just once, not just twice but three times, all in the space of six months. When interest rates were cut a couple of weeks ago, it kicked off probably the best three consecutive days of economic news we have had for some time. On the Tuesday, interest rates were cut. That provided welcome relief to millions of Australians with a mortgage under pressure. On the Wednesday of that week, annual real wages grew for the seventh consecutive quarter, the strongest real wages growth in five years. Remember that real wages were falling fast when we came to office. On the Thursday of that week, unemployment ticked down and we learned that around 25,000 new jobs were created in the month of July. Under this government, it remains the case that average unemployment is lower than for any other government in the last 50 years. Last week, we saw confidence lift substantially and the stock market crack 9,000 points for the first time ever.

We know that there is much more work to do. We know that people are still under pressure. We know that the global environment is uncertain and that growth in our economy is softer than we want it to be. There are persistent structural issues which we are paying attention to. We know that the economy is finely balanced between the progress that we have made as Australians and the more productive economy that we need to see in the future to sustain that progress in living standards.

Those opposite always want to talk our economy down. When they talk our economy down, they talk the Australian people down as well. Under this government, we have come a long way together. We are focused on delivery. We're considering the next steps in a collaborative way because we know that the best progress that we can make is the progress we make together. You can see that inflation, interest rates, real wages and low unemployment— (Time expired)

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