Address to the House of Representatives, Statements by Members

Wednesday 9 October 2024

This government is focused on helping Australians with the cost of living, while fighting inflation, by bringing down costs to households, getting wages up and by delivering two consecutive surpluses through responsible management. This is what Bean constituents want.

Since 1 July we've delivered a tax cut for every Australian taxpayer, not just for some; energy bill relief for every Australian household and small business; a freeze on the cost of PBS medicines for every Australian; a third consecutive pay increase for 2.6 million workers; and more funding to build more homes in every part of the country. We've already delivered cheaper child care, fee-free TAFE and the biggest investment ever in expanded bulk-billing. We're delivering a better deal for Aussies at the checkout, cracking down on dodgy supermarket discounts, making sure supermarkets that do the wrong thing face multimillion-dollar fines and fighting against companies that are shrinking products. Paying more for air just isn't fair.

In contrast, the opposition are suffering from their own form of shrinkflation. When you open up any of their policy packets, you'll find that it's either 90 per cent nothing, or negativity. But if you poke around at the bottom of the packet, you'll find the same thing in every packet. You'll find that they want to make Australians work longer for less.