Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak against the motion moved by the member for Fairfax, a motion that, as is typical of the opposition, cherrypicks figures and ignores the advice of independent experts to gaslight the Australian people. If those opposite were so worried about interest rates, they must have been ready to tear up their membership to their party at the last election, because, when they left government, inflation was at six per cent and higher. Since we came to government we've been able to bring inflation down to a number with a three in front of it.

The member for Fairfax knows that the governor of the independent Reserve Bank of Australia did not talk about public spending as a driver of the recent uptick in inflation. The member for Fairfax, like so many of those opposite, misrepresents the governor's words in an attempt to reclaim credibility on economic management. He knows that the governor has stated very clearly on numerous occasions that the recent uptick in inflation is due to a higher than expected increase in private demand. The Liberal Party claim to be the party of the private sector and entrepreneurialism, and you would think that this would be something that they would celebrate, but, instead, it is something that they talk down or ignore.

We have seen the fastest growth in the private sector, the fastest quarterly growth in almost a decade. We've supported private sector investment in areas like renewables and data centres, investing in those parts of the economy that will be the future industries for Australia. And that's why we've been able to see that growth in the private sector and why growth has been better than expected.

The coalition trashed their reputation for economic management when they were last in office, and they put the final nail in the coffin when they went to the last election promising higher taxes, bigger budget deficits and more tax. Now they've made the member for Hume, who was the architect of this plan, the Leader of the Opposition. They've also made Senator Jane Hume Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Senator Hume was the architect of their disastrous working-from-home policy, a policy that said to working Australians that working from home is not a legitimate way to balance work and family life and that sought to drag people back into the office. The senator also said that Chinese Australians who were participating in democratic process were 'Chinese spies'.

We are the party of responsible economic management, the party of fiscal discipline and the party of surpluses and of paying down debt. In the last term, the Labor government delivered the biggest improvement in the budget in a single parliamentary term. The government delivered two surpluses, something the coalition weren't able to do for the nine years that they were last in government. We exercise fiscal discipline and we bank those savings to pay down debt. The budget is $233 billion better off than what it was when we inherited it. Debt in 2024-25 was $176 billion lower than that which was left to us, and that will mean $60 billion less in interest costs over the medium term. We've got peak gross debt down 45 per cent to 37 per cent, and we've done it all while keeping unemployment at historically low levels and while increasing wages. We've created jobs, and we've ensured that, during tough economic times, people have been able to keep their jobs.

The new shadow treasurer recently did a bit of freelancing and said that we should question whether or not the Reserve Bank of Australia should have its dual mandate—to bring inflation down but also to have full employment. I think that's a case of saying the quiet bit out loud. We know that those opposite don't care about Australian jobs. We want to build an economy that works for people—not the other way around—and that means that we're making sure that people stay in or can get good, secure jobs with good conditions.

Of course, we have made spending commitments, and those opposite have referred to some of those spending commitments. We stand by those because spending is about priorities. We've prioritised policies on health, education, housing, cost of living and tax cuts. These are policies that were endorsed by the Australian people at the last election. For that, we will be eternally grateful. We've been able to start implementing those policies and have seen an increase in the rates of Medicare bulk-billing. We'll prioritise these policies while better managing the budget, focusing on productivity and helping Australians with cost-of-living relief.

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