Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Regarding the MPI put forward today by Senator Lambie, that 'the cost-of-living crisis, fuelled by unfair practices from banks, energy and telecommunications companies posting record profits, exposes a broken system and the urgent need for fairer tax and economic reforms', the Albanese Labor government is 100 per cent focused on relieving cost-of-living pressures felt across the country. That's why our government has had a laser focus on this issue during our first term and we continue to do so in our second term. We on this side believe in wage growth, which is why we have supported increases to the minimum wage twice and secured those increases for some of Australia's lowest paid workers. That's why we on this side have delivered for the care economy's workers, with a 14 per cent pay rise for people working in aged care. That's why we have secured a 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, something I've campaigned on for many years, in both the early childhood education area and aged care.

What a week to be in the Senate, when we will be debating one of the most important issues and pieces of legislation—that is, securing penalty rates for 2.6 million Australians, a commitment we took to the election and we will deliver in the Senate this week. It's always a good week in Canberra when a government is improving pay and conditions for working people. So I look forward to speaking on that legislation again to protect people's rights to penalty rates—to protect workers' rights to penalty rates. On this side of the chamber, we are the party of government, and any economist or politician who understands how our economy and our society work understands that we need strong banks because they provide security to our nation. We need strong banks to have rating agencies know that Australia is a place to do business and that a triple A credit rating is essential.

I want people to not forget history. The fact is that headline and underlying inflation are at a four-year low thanks to Australians who have been doing the heavy lifting over the last four years. Further to this, annual real wages have been growing for seven consecutive quarters. The economy is still expanding. The fundamentals of our nation's economy are strong. Interest rates have been cut three times in six months, taking pressure off households and mortgage holders. More than 1.1 million jobs have been created since we came to government, a record for any government in a single term. The average unemployment rate is the lowest of any government in 50 years, so the comments made by Senator Lambie by bringing this motion are absolutely unfounded, but it's very easy to come in and throw statistics and have a rant—which is what it was—about banks and this government not doing anything.

But the budget is what tells the story. We've turned two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses and halved the deficit in our third year. The budget position has improved by more than $270 billion, and we are still delivering tax cuts to hardworking Australians. Debt is $177 billion lower in 2024-25, saving $60 billion in interest cost as a consequence. We've found more than $100 billion in savings, whereas our predecessors had none in their last budget.

I'd like to also remind the chamber and Senator Lambie that headline inflation was 6.1 per cent when we came to office, and now it's 2.1 per cent. You can't deny that, Senator Lambie. These interest rate cuts mean a household with a $700,000 mortgage is saving about $330 a month, or $4,000 a year. Australians appreciate that. They acknowledge that. We are delivering what we said we would at the May election, rolling out billions of dollars worth of responses and support from 1 July. The national minimum wage and award wages increased by 3.5 per cent. We will stand by our record and we will continue to do all we can to assist Australians through these challenging times.