Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026

Mr GREGG (Deakin) (10:48): I rise to support Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026 and to reflect on the progress that we have made together. Inflation is down, interest rates are down, the deficit is down, jobs are up and wages are growing. Through the efforts of the Albanese Labor government and, more importantly, the efforts of all Australians, we've turned the economy around.

Contrast this with what we see from the opposition. They left behind nearly a trillion dollars of Liberal debt for us, weighed down in rorts and waste. They went to the last election with a plan to lift taxes, to lower wages and to bring bigger deficits and more debt.

I think the Australian people's verdict made very clear what they thought of that one. Australians voted overwhelmingly for the plan that is working—the plan of the Albanese Labor government. We've made real and substantial progress on inflation.

Headline inflation has been at or below three per cent for more than a year, and underlying inflation has been within the Reserve Bank's target band for nine months in a row. When we came to office inflation on a monthly measure had a six in front of it. That is more than double what it is today.

I know that monthly figures are not as reliable as quarterly figures, so let's take into consideration recent quarterly figures. The official quarterly numbers show that both underlying and headline inflation are now at their lowest rates in almost four years. The progress we've made on inflation has led to three interest rate cuts in the last six months.

Those cuts mean that a household with a $700,000 mortgage is saving about 330 bucks a month or $4,000 a year. That is a real and substantial difference in people's lives. It's happening because they resoundingly rejected the coalition's economic legacy—high inflation, high interest rates, declining real wages and living standards, and deficits as far as the eye could see.

Importantly Australians also rejected the shallow economic legacy that we saw from the coalition. They left behind a race to the bottom on wages, an approach they called 'a deliberate design feature of their economic architecture'. The Albanese government's approach is for business to compete on the basis of their ideas, their productivity, their capability and their innovation, not a race to the bottom on wages.

One might think that the Liberal Party would have got the message at the last election, but no. We've only been in this place for a couple of weeks, and I've already had to defend the concept of penalty rates. They really show that they just don't get it.

Take-home pay matters. The increase in living standards matters. So, like in a lot of the policy areas we're seeing at the moment, the opposition has learned absolutely nothing.

They might have a new leader, but it really is the same old script and the same old division. Instead we've chosen responsible economic management. We're seeing inflation lower, interest rates down, and real wages and living standards starting to grow again.

We've delivered tax cuts for every taxpayer, with two more to come, and we've overseen the creation of more than 1.1 million jobs. We've recorded the lowest average unemployment of any government in over 50 years. We've delivered the biggest nominal turnaround in the budget of any government in Australia's history, turning two big Liberal deficits into two substantial Labor surpluses, and the deficit in our third year is a fifth of what they left us.

We've also shown that governments don't need to choose between responsible economic management and helping people with the cost of living. The national minimum wage and award wages increased by 3.5 per cent from 1 July. The superannuation guarantee increased to 12 per cent.

Paid parental leave increased to 24 weeks. Super is now being paid on all government paid parental leave. Another $150 in energy bill relief will be out before the end of this year, and there is $10,000 incentive payments for new housing apprentices.

We're delivering cheaper home batteries, cutting 20 per cent off student loan debts for three million Australians and Commonwealth practice payments, which are going to make a huge difference to people training in important professions like teaching so they can actually complete their courses. Of course, hard-working aged-care nurses will receive the next instalment of their pay rise in October.

The Liberals and Nationals stood against much of this cost-of-living relief, and Australians took notice. At the election, they voted for higher living standards, higher wages and secure, well-paid jobs. That's what the Albanese government is working to deliver every day.