Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rennick! If you're so smart, why are you sitting over there on the backbench? The government's view is that it's even more important that we are implementing the policies we took to the election, which include accepting that there are some parts of the inflation problem that are being driven by international effects and that there are things that we should be doing here to make those sensible investments into the productive side of the economy to deal with some of those supply constraints. Over the longer term, that will grow the economy and put downward pressure on the cost of living. That is the plan we took to the election. That is the plan we are going to implement.

We accept that these interest rate rises are difficult on households. We constantly look at ways that we can manage some of those impacts on households in the future, including, as we approach the budget process in October, accepting that we are going through the budget, line by line, to make sure that every dollar spent is quality—