Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Gallagher, in her answers, talked about making sensible investments, and part of those sensible investments that she spoke about was to help people with the cost of living. But, while we've been making those investments to help people with the cost of living, we've been getting the budget in better shape, and Senator Gallagher also talked about that.

Senator Gallagher talked about how we have ensured that we've had a surplus. In fact, she outlined very clearly that, during the period of time that we've been in government, we've had two surpluses and that those opposite weren't able to have one surplus in the decade that they were in government. She also talked about how strong population growth and sensible government investments have ensured that our economy keeps on growing. It's certainly strong population growth and sensible government investment that have made sure that our economy keeps growing.

The primary focus of the Albanese government is to ease the cost-of-living pressures for Australians, but, at the same time, we are fighting inflation in our economy. We recognise that people are under the pump, and we're doing something about it.

I note that Senator Kovacic talked about the energy rebate and how she felt that the manner in which it had been delivered wasn't sensible. I'm not sure how many constituents the senator has spoken to out there since that energy relief has come through, but I know a number of people have come and talked to me when I'm out and about in the community, have rung the office and have come into the office to thank the Labor government for that initiative, which has really helped them in terms of their cost of living. I guess there are two lots of people that we're talking about here.

We're already rolling out tax cuts for every taxpayer and energy rebates, as we've spoken about, for every household, and there will be more that will continue to be rolled out over the months. We're making rents cheaper for nearly one million households. We're finalising the rollout of 60-day dispensing for additional medicines. We've already had one lot of 60-day dispensing, with a lot of opposition and carrying on from those over on that side, but, I'll tell you what, the pharmacies are doing okay. They're doing really well, and the constituents who are on the receiving end of those savings from that 60-day dispensing are thanking us for that initiative. They are thanking us because we are helping them with the cost of living and the costs of their medicines.

We're indexing payments for people on JobSeeker, the age pension, the disability support pension, the carer payment and the parenting payment, as well as the Commonwealth rent assistance. But we're doing that in a responsible way that helps fight the fight against inflation.

We know that those on the other side have opposed all of this. They opposed the 60-day dispensing. They opposed the energy rebate. Whatever we put up, they're opposing it. They're still opposing it. The housing bills that we've got currently on the table to get through this place so that people can get assistance to purchase a house, they are opposing. They are definitely the 'no-alition'.

They say that they will cut $315 billion from the budget, and that includes all of that cost-of-living relief that I talked about. It beggars belief that, at a time when so many Australians are under pressure, they want to take away this help. That is their mantra. We've brought in lots of initiatives that will help people with the cost of living and help them meet daily living expenses. And what are those opposite going to do? They're going to take it all away—and other things as well—because they're going to cut $315 billion from the budget.

They are also going to lower wages. It's in their DNA. We know that; they've said that for a very long time. They would pull the rug out from under people at this very important time. It's the worst possible time that people could have their cost of living relief attacked by those opposite. Their cuts would leave the economy in a critical condition. That's what the facts are. They don't want to fight inflation; they want to fight an ideological battle against the Australian people, when we are working hard to cut the cost of living and help people save.