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

Well, our economy is continuing to grow. Inflation is half of what we inherited. Real wages have increased. Interest rates have started to fall. But we understand that the work of good government and addressing cost-of-living pressures is never done, which is why we continue to act on cost-of-living measures.

We understand that people are under pressure, but they would have been under more pressure had they not got an income tax cut, which was opposed by those opposite—except for at the higher end, of course. People would have been under more pressure if inflation still had a '6' in front of it, which is what we inherited. They would have been under more pressure if the more than one million jobs that have been created on our watch had not occurred. Women in particular would have been under more pressure if the gender pay gap wasn't the lowest it has ever been. Workers in aged care would have been under more pressure had they not got the substantial pay increases that were funded by this government. Workers in child care would have been under more pressure had they not got the pay increases that childcare workers have now got in order to be sustained. Workers would have been under more pressure had the four increases in the minimum wage not been advocated for by this government and had the Fair Work Commission not listened to this government.

The easy task is to identify a problem. The difficult task is delivering a solution. My government is committed to delivering solutions right across the board, whether it be addressing people on the minimum wage or whether it be the increases in payments that we've made—the energy bill relief, the cheaper medicines, the cheaper child care, the tripling of the bulk-billing incentive for Medicare and the delivery of urgent care clinics.

I tell you what: the over 650,000 Australians who've benefited from free TAFE understand that that doesn't just skill them up for a better job and that it doesn't just improve the national economy by providing employers with the skilled workforce they need; it is also cost-of-living relief—cost-of-living relief that was dismissed by the Leader of the Opposition, who said that people don't value it if they don't pay for it. We make no apologies for that fact. We make no apologies for the fact that we've delivered when it comes to increased support for rent assistance and that we're delivering increases in support for social housing as well. (Time expired)

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