As I said yesterday, I think, in response to a similar question from another honourable member, the fact that public demand is part of aggregate demand has not been contested by any objective observer. It's not been contested by us, which is the point that economists have made. I've made that point throughout the course of the year, I think, on at least half a dozen different occasions. The issue with inflation in our economy right now is really a function of two things. First of all is the much quicker than anticipated recovery in the private sector. Secretary Wilkinson and Governor Bullock have both referenced that in the past. And secondly, obviously, is the escalation in fuel prices that came from the biggest oil shock in the history of the world.

I think it's a bit unusual. If we can acknowledge that we had an inflation challenge in our economy, which was made worse by the war in the Middle East. I find it bizarre, frankly, that those opposite won't acknowledge what was factually the biggest driver of yesterday's inflation figures, which was higher petrol prices. It's just a fact in the ABS data. It's this weird post truth stuff that they get engaged in where they see the same ABS data that we see, and the biggest driver of yesterday's inflation number, which was too high, was fuel. You can see it in the numbers that were released yesterday.

I was also asked about the comments from the Reserve Bank Governor. This is what the Reserve Bank Governor said yesterday:

The conflict in the Middle East has re-escalated, and global energy prices are now much higher than had been assumed in the August forecasts. Oil and related prices have increased sharply again and will add materially to inflation, both directly and indirectly, as businesses facing increasing pressures from higher transport and related costs attempt to pass them on.

That's what the governor of the Reserve Bank said yesterday.

Any objective observer of the economy and of budgets knows that budgets aren't the primary determinant of prices in our economy, but we can continue to play a helpful role, and we will continue to manage the budget in a responsible way. Every single one of our eight budgets and budget updates had savings in it, and our ninth will as well. The mid-year update that we will release in December will have savings in it, and that's because we acknowledge that the primary driver of higher inflation in yesterday's figures was a consequence of the war in the Middle East, which has been disastrous from a cost-of-living point of view, but we will continue to play a helpful role where we can.