David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What steps is the Albanese Labor government taking to strengthen the budget and support Australians with the cost of living? How does that compare with other approaches?

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

Thanks to the member for Hughes for his question and for the really important contribution that he's already making to our team in this place. This government is improving the budget position at the same time as we're helping with the cost of living by cutting taxes for all 14 million Australian taxpayers in the tax system a second and third time this term. These are the big differences between a government which is delivering tax cuts and that shambolic three-ring circus over there.

Don't forget the highest taxing government in recent decades was the Howard government. The highest spending government in recent decades was the Morrison government. Those opposite went to the election with a policy for higher taxes, bigger deficits and more debt. Now, the shadow Treasurer, a moment ago, asked about tightening the belt. He wouldn't know the first thing about responsible economic management. They failed, every year, to deliver a surplus, and we've already delivered two. They had real spending growth at 4.1 per cent. We've got it down to 1.7 per cent. They were spending almost a third of the economy. We got it down, closer to a quarter. They spent most of the upward revisions to revenue. We have saved most of them. We got their debt down by $176 billion, partly by saving $114 billion, including $20 billion in the most recent update in December, which improved the budget position in every single year of the forward estimates. This is an important part of the biggest nominal improvement in the budget in our history, allowing us to make room for key investments in areas like Medicare.

There's more work to do, but the substantial progress that we've made has come from savings, spending restraint and surpluses that those opposite were incapable of. We won't be taking lectures from them on the budget or on taxes. They might change their leader this week, but they can't change their record. At the same time as we got the budget in better nick, we're cutting income taxes so more people can earn more and keep more of what they earn. This means lower taxes for workers and lower average tax rates in the economy—a big part of our effort to rebuild incomes after the deliberate wage stagnation we saw under those opposite.

We know that there is more work to do in the budget, because people are still under pressure and the budget is under pressure as well, but it would be under more pressure and people would be under more pressure if those opposite were implementing their election policies for higher taxes, bigger deficits and more debt. The member for Hume and the member for Fairfax have to take responsibility for that. They are among the two biggest reasons why nobody takes them seriously on the economy any more.