Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. What are the Albanese Labor government's plans for economic growth and security, and to ensure that Australia is well placed to seize the opportunities in front of us?

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

I thank the member for Hawke for his question. I spoke at CEDA today, which was a conference being held here at Parliament House talking about the challenges that are there in the global economy and about Australia's opportunity to seize the advantages that we have going forward. We know that international inflation is causing major pressure on households, including here in Australia.

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

The member for Bowman will cease interjecting.

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

Indeed, in all of the Anglo countries interest rates are higher—in the UK, the US, New Zealand and Canada, for example—than they are here in Australia. But we know that people are under real pressure.

So the task of government is to look after those Australians who are doing it tough, to help people under pressure here and now, but also to not take our eye off the future—how we take advantage of the opportunities which are there before Australia and, indeed, the opportunities that there where we need to break new ground. We need to attract new sources of international investment. We need to diversify our future exports, and the government has been working on that with countries like India and Indonesia and other agreements that have been put in place. We need to boost the skills of our workforce. That's why we have fee-free TAFE making a difference and 20,000 additional university places. We need to build greater resilience in our supply chains, because we know that the Reserve Bank governor has identified that as a big pressure which is there. We need to move more of our businesses up the international value chain, and that's what the National Reconstruction Fund is about: helping existing industries to boost their productivity and to boost their investment but also the creation of new industries, particularly those that will benefit from the clean energy transformation that is occurring. We need also to support the full, equal, respectful and overdue participation of women in the economy. One of the things that child care is about is boosting participation but also boosting productivity.

We are seeing some positive results: the most jobs created in the first year of any government in Australian history; record levels of participation, including a record number of women in full-time work; and wages growing at the fastest rate in a decade, with real wages growth forecast for next year. We're proud of those achievements. but we're certainly not resting on them, because we know that after a wasted decade there is not a day to waste. We need to seize the opportunities which are there. My government is determined to do just that.