QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr MARLES (Corio—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence) (14:01): I thank the member for her question. When we became the government in May of 2022 and from that moment onwards, all of our focus has been on putting in place policies which ease cost-of-living pressures. Be it more affordable child care, be it getting wages going, be it tax cuts, be it cheaper medicines, all of these have been aimed at helping households manage their budgets.

What today's figures demonstrate is that Australian households are still under pressure—and we understand that the work is never done, which is why we will continue to pursue cost-of-living measures. But it is worth noting that even the headline inflation rate today is about half of the headline inflation rate that we inherited when we came to office. And, indeed, the core inflation rate today means that for three successive quarters the core inflation rate has been within the Reserve Bank band.

That is in no small part due to the way in which we have been managing, in a prudent way, the Commonwealth budget. Annual spending growth under our government over the last three years has averaged about 1.2 per cent. When those opposite were in government, the average increase in annual spending was around 4.1 per cent.

They doubled debt before the pandemic and they left us with a trillion dollars of debt with absolutely nothing to show for it. It's because we have been able to turn two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses that we have saved, in the last financial year, $188 billion on the nation's debt, which in turn means that we will be paying $60 billion less over a decade in terms of interest payments.

But let's be absolutely clear. At the last election, those opposite went to the election promising higher taxes, bigger deficit and bigger debt. That's not us saying it; that's the PBO.

Heaven knows what Robert Menzies would make of this lot, because their signature policy was a $600 billion state-owned power plant, and they promoted its architect to shadow Treasurer. They are now big-government, big-taxing, big-spending people, and that's before the member for Canning gets his hands on it, when we will be seeing tariffs jacked up. They will close the door, and then look at what happens to inflation.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Durack, the member for Goldstein and the member for Wright were in full flight during that answer. You may be sitting a fair way away, but I can hear every single word.

I've got good hearing today. When the House comes to order— Mr Chester interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Gippsland is warned. When I'm settling the House, it's not the time to interject.

The honourable member for Banks.