Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Absolutely right. We will keep making the point that this opposition is completely out of touch and is in complete denial about the state of the legacy that it has left this country. It is in complete denial about ignoring the Reserve Bank’s 20 warnings and in complete denial about the state of inflation in this country. We will keep reminding those opposite of the state of the economy consistently and at every opportunity that we get, because it will take sober and responsible government policy to turn these pressures around, and it is no easy task. Left unchecked, inflationary pressures will cause significant damage to the Australian economy, including contributing to increased cost of living pressures and the erosion of personal savings, and will threaten our international competitiveness. If we ignore these inflationary pressures now, the inevitable result will be a more painful adjustment later. That is why this government is committed to fighting the inflation problem as a matter of priority.

The opposition dearly want to dismiss the problem of inflation. They dearly want to dismiss it. They want to avoid responsibility for their failure to address the inflation threat during their time in office. The previous government failed to heed 20 warnings from the RBA over three years about capacity constraints and 10 separate warnings about inflationary pressures in a three-year period when interest rates went up seven times. They took no action to address the emerging problem. Indeed, they made the problem worse. We have the shadow Treasurer still claiming that inflation is just a fairy story.