Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill, as you rightly point out, the Economic Reform Roundtable is all about delivering for Australians so we can keep working to lift living standards and keep working to create more opportunities for Australians. Together, Australians have made substantial progress on the economy. Inflation is down, debt is down, interest rates are falling and unemployment is low. The economy is growing, real wages are up, more than 1.1 million jobs have been created and, of course, the gender pay gap is at a record low.

In some areas, where the Economic Reform Roundtable demonstrated considerable consensus, we have already taken action. Last week, the Treasurer and Senator Farrell announced that we will abolish a further 500 nuisance tariffs on top of the 457 abolished in July last year, and we announced that we are reducing complexity and red tape in the construction code to get houses built quicker.