Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government boosting wages and helping with the cost of living while managing the budget in a responsible way?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question, but I also congratulate him on a terrific first speech earlier today. He did his family, his party and our local community proud today—either side of Loganlea Road, which we've just funded an upgrade for. Well done.

The member for Forde joins a government with two defining features: a big focus on wages and the cost of living, and a big, inseparable focus on responsible economic management. More Australians working, earning more, keeping more, retiring with more—this is our Labor government's reason for being. That's what today's legislation to protect penalty rates and overtime was all about; it's why we're cutting income taxes three times; it's why we're increasing minimum and award wages; it's why we're increasing the super guarantee and paying it on paid parental leave; and it's why we're rolling out more cost-of-living help this month.

We have made room in tight budgets for the help that Australians need and deserve, and that's because we've managed the budget in a responsible way. This has meant the biggest nominal improvement in a budget in a single parliamentary term ever. We've found $100 billion in savings. We've banked most of the upside revisions to revenue. We've got the Liberal debt down $170 billion lower than what we inherited. We're saving on interest costs. We've turned two big Liberal deficits into two substantial Labor surpluses. And the latest advice is that, when the final budget outcome comes out in September, it will show that the deficit for the year just finished is much smaller as well. I inform the House that the 2024-25 deficit is now expected to be in the low double digits. That is less than half what we expected at budget time, and it's around a quarter of what we inherited from those opposite. This is another demonstration of our responsible economic management. Inflation is down, real wages are up, unemployment is low, interest rates are coming down, we've delivered a couple of surpluses and debt has come down as well.

We've made a lot of progress together as Australians. We've got a big agenda to deliver as a government, but we also know that there is more work to do, because people are still under pressure, the global environment is very uncertain and we've got some big, longstanding structural issues in our economy to deal with as well. We're upfront about that. We believe as a government that the best way to build on the progress we've made together and to make our economy and our budget more productive, resilient and sustainable over time is to go about that in the same consultative, methodical and, especially, responsible way that has been a hallmark of our government. (Time expired)