It's all ambition, no ammunition. As Richard Ackland once said of the shadow treasurer, 'I had the sound off, so I could understand him perfectly.' If anyone was listening to that misfortune of 10 wasted minutes, they will have seen the confected outrage from the shadow treasurer but a complete lack of policy solutions.

Let's just take a moment to imagine what Australia would look like today and what the cost-of-living pressures would be like on Australian families if Australia was governed by a Liberal-National-One Nation coalition. The minimum wage would be lower. Student debt would be higher. Fewer students would be able to access free TAFE. Fewer parents would be able to access affordable child care. Home buyers wouldn't have access to Help to Buy. The government would be building fewer homes. Fewer Australians would have home batteries putting downward pressure on their energy bills. Income taxes would be higher. Government debt would be higher. Medicines would cost more. Visits to the GP would cost more. Multinationals would be paying less tax. Our competition laws would be weaker. The penalties for breaking competition laws would be, at their maximum, a tenth of what they are today.

The fact is that the world is facing an inflation challenge. The IMF's October outlook projects global inflation rising to 4.7 per cent this year. The simple reason for that is the war in Iran, which this government has urged the US and Israeli governments to bring to an end, their stated objectives having been achieved. The war in Iran has sharply driven up the price of a barrel of oil, which started the year at about US$75 a barrel and has now gone above US$90 a barrel, as supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions have tightened. Here in Australia, we've had inflation figures out today which report that petrol prices rose 9.4 per cent, driven by higher world oil prices. That is the principal driver of inflation today. The Australian budget doesn't set the world oil price.

We are seeing these challenges around the world. In the United States in September, inflation rose 0.3 per cent. In Britain, inflation rose 0.4 per cent, and, in Germany, inflation rose 0.4 per cent. In Canada, inflation rose 0.1 per cent. Across the euro area, it rose, on average, 0.6 per cent in September. In France, inflation rose 0.8 per cent, Italy 0.9 per cent. In Spain, it was up 0.4 per cent. Of the European Union's 27 countries, 23 recorded an increase in their annual inflation rate in September. This is a challenge which countries are facing around the world.

The government account for $1 in $5 of additional demand, and we are doing our part in order to work with the Reserve Bank in placing downward pressure on inflation. Average spending growth under this government is less than half the rate it was under the previous government. Since coming to office, we've identified approximately $180 billion in savings, closing loopholes, stronger tax compliance, reducing poorly targeted concessions and reprioritising spending. Under the former government, we had sports rorts, car park rorts—all manner of rorts—reined in by our government since coming to office, and we still have measures before the parliament that would deliver savings, including our changes to the private health insurance rebate so it is means tested not age tested. That savings measure is opposed by those opposite—a savings measure which would assist in the significant task this government is engaged in.

Over the last 15 years, only one Treasurer has delivered a surplus. It is Treasurer Chalmers who has delivered two surpluses. That reflects the important work that our government did. Those opposite printed the 'back in black' mugs but never delivered the budget into the black. The fact is—

I would love one, former deputy prime minister! I could definitely use a 'back in black' prop to pull out, because the fact is it would remind Australians of how fiscally profligate the former government was. Before the COVID pandemic hit, they had already doubled the debt. They doubled the deficit on coming into office, and they continued to significantly spend such that, now, two-thirds of government debt is that accrued under the former coalition government. Under Labor, we have delivered the most significant tax reforms in 25 years, delivering reforms that go back to the Asprey report of 1975. I pay tribute to Treasurer Chalmers for picking up the recommendations of experts such as the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, e61 and the Grattan Institute, which, for decades, have been urging upon this government reforms on capital gains taxation, negative gearing and trusts. This treasurer, Treasurer Chalmers, has delivered all three.

Just as tax reform was fought by conservatives under the Hawke and Keating governments, it has been no surprise this year that we have seen the conservative parties backing the status quo rather than a fairer deal for homebuyers in Australia, but we on this side of the House have supported significant tax reforms. We have also put in place the most significant competition reforms of the last generation, reforming Australia's merger laws so there is more expeditious passage of low-risk mergers and greater scrutiny of high-risk mergers. We have increased penalties for anti-competitive conduct and anti-consumer conduct. We've made the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory, a measure opposed by those opposite, and it's backed now, under us, by strong penalties. We're tackling shrinkflation through reforms to strengthen the Unit Pricing Code. We've made supermarket price gouging illegal. We've funded CHOICE to give shoppers more information about supermarket prices, and we're addressing commercial planning and zoning through national competition policy to reduce the barriers to entry in the supermarket sector. We've increased funding to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and we are seeing results to that reform. Earlier this year, in proceedings brought by the ACCC, the Federal Court found that Coles had made false or misleading representations about its 'Down, Down' discount, and a separate judgement in a case against Woolworths is pending. Our reforms are delivering economy-wide protections.

In the area of noncompete clauses, we have announced that we are scrapping noncompetes for everyone earning below the Fair Work high-income earner threshold, currently $190,100. This ensures that Australians can move to a better job. At a time when wages are under pressure, scrapping noncompete clauses allows wages to grow. The experts say that the benefits are something in the order of $2,500 for the one in five Australian workers constrained by a noncompete. That means wages will be higher, productivity will be higher and business start-ups will benefit, because, in an economy in which the unemployment rate is below five per cent, start-up business will be looking to hire from incumbent businesses. Scrapping noncompetes is good for productivity, good for innovation and good for freedom. Workers should have the freedom to move to a better job, and under this Albanese government we will deliver that outcome.

We have come to a deal with the European Union on a free trade agreement which will see significant increases to the amount of red meat which flows to the European Union—increases in lamb meat exports, increases in beef meat exports. This is a significant market, and Labor's free trade agreement is the kind of free trade agreement that would have been agreed to by the coalition in decades gone by. Negotiations were started by Malcolm Turnbull and Steven Ciobo, with then prime minister Turnbull describing it as 'a great day for Australia'. It contains no clauses on climate that the European Union and Australia haven't been signing up to in agreements of the past, including agreements signed by the former coalition government. They are so opposed to action on climate that they will make Australian consumers and Australian farmers suffer because of their ideological objections. Labor is the only true small-l liberal party standing in Australia. Labor is supporting free trade as those opposite once would.