Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The IMF has expressly warned against Labor's $45 billion in off-budget spending because it will lead to higher inflation, which of course pushes interest rates up. Given the typical Australian mortgage has already increased by $1,400 a month under Labor, why is the Prime Minister ignoring the experts and implementing policies that will push these costs up even higher? Why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

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

I thank the deputy leader for her question, which goes to why it is that the Labor government is fulfilling the mandate that we received last May to establish a series of funds to make a difference to our country.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fairfax is warned.

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

Now, the National Reconstruction Fund and what it will do to benefit the economy: if you have a product like that I spoke about before, lithium, you can put it on a ship, export it off, wait for it to be made into a product—a battery, or everything that goes into a solar panel is also, of course, produced here. We can import it back, and take solar panels as a good example. Currently, over 85 per cent of the world's solar panels are produced in one country. If things continue to project, that figure will rise to over 95 per cent in a decade. If you think about the role that renewables play and how vulnerable that makes the world to supply chains, it makes absolute economic sense for us to, where possible, make products like that here. It's a matter not just of creating jobs here and it's a matter not just of creating higher economic growth here; it's also a matter of our national security and our resilience, our capacity to stand up for ourselves. And that's why we support the National Reconstruction Fund, with $15 billion in it.

We also have legislation before the House on our Housing Australia Future Fund. Both of those policies were announced in budget reply speeches at a time when opposition leaders used to come out with policy. Both of those were announced, both of those were taken to an election, and both of those we got a mandate for. That will produce an increased supply of housing. When you build housing, you create jobs, you create economic activity—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause. I will hear from the deputy leader.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The IMF comments were the subject of the question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was about the Prime Minister's budget and spending, and he is being relevant to the question. I remind him there was another part of the question, and he's entitled to answer the question in the last 50 seconds.

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

The Housing Australia Future Fund will not only produce increased social housing; 4,000 of those homes are reserved for women and children escaping domestic violence—good social policy. Last night and tonight and the next night, women and children searching for a safe haven from a circumstance not of their making will be forced to sleep in their car or in a park or, worse still, return to a dangerous situation. That's why we identified this as a major issue. This is about building our national economic resilience. This should be policy that those opposite support. We have a clear mandate for them, and we clearly will continue to support them.