QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:07): I thank Senator Ghosh for the question. It's an important one and it's another one focusing on the strong budget management that the Albanese Labor government has brought to the task of budget repair and ensuring that the Australian people get the services that they demand and expect.

When we came to office, there were huge deficits as far as the eye could see and $1 trillion of Liberal debt in a budget weighed down with waste and rorts. We've made progress, with quarterly inflation and underlying inflation coming down and now at four-year lows. Annual real wages have been growing for seven consecutive quarters.

I didn't include that in my last answer, but that's an important result from the Albanese government's policies. We made sure that we got wages moving again. The economy is expanding.

Interest rates have been cut three times this year. More than 1.1 million jobs have been created since we came to government, a record for any government in any single term. The average unemployment rate is the lowest of any government in 50 years.

When it comes to the budget, we turned those two Liberal deficits into two Labor surpluses, bringing the deficit down to a fifth of what we inherited in our third year. The budget position—I know it hurts them to hear these facts—improved by $209 billion in our first term. Debt is $188 billion lower than was forecast, saving $60 billion in interest costs as a consequence.

Real payment growth is estimated to average 1.7 per cent per year, less than half the average under our predecessors. On top of that, the final budget from those opposite made zero savings. We've managed to deliver $100 billion in savings across our budgets.

We know that they didn't understand how to make savings. They just riddled it with rorts to pay off the National Party— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Ghosh, first supplementary?