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

I thank Senator Walsh for the supplementary. We've seen in recent economic data that Australians are pulling back on their spending, dipping into their savings, and we will see a lot of the cost-of-living relief measures flow into the economy over the next few months. Some of them started on 1 July but some of those important supports around income support are starting in September. I would say that the inflation data for July was very instructive. The ABS showed clearly the impact that our energy rebates are having on energy bills for people in contributing to CPI. If we exclude the impact of rebates from the 23 July figures, electricity prices would have recorded a monthly increase of 19.2 per cent as opposed to six per cent. Let's remember, who voted against those rebates? All those over here. That is right. All of them voted to keep electricity bills higher than they needed to be.