QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator STEWART (Victoria) (16:08): The coalition asked about interest costs on Australia's debt. I think that that's a fair question, but, before I answer it, I want to tell the chamber what that money was spent on, because I think that's really important context, the money that those opposite characterise as wasteful spending. It was spent on five tax cuts.
From 1 July, every single Australian taxpayer got a tax cut, not just some. The average worker will be around $2,800 better off thanks to that spending. It was spent on cheaper medicines.
The PBS co-payment has fallen to $25. Labor has expanded the PBS listings for cancer, kidney disease and cystic fibrosis treatments—absolutely life-changing drugs priced so people can afford them. That's what the money was spent on.
It was spent on 137 urgent care clinics. It was spent on strengthening Medicare through the tripled-bulk-billing incentive. More Australians can see a doctor for no cost.
No Australian should have to make the decision between putting food on the table and taking care of their health, and that's what Labor's spending has assured for Australians. It was spent on the workers who care for Australians—a historic 15 per cent pay rise for early childhood educators, backed by a $3.6 billion spend in government funding. We spent $17.7 billion supporting the Fair Work Commission's pay rise for 400,000 aged-care workers.
These are the people who look after our kids. These are the people who look after our elders. Their work was undervalued for decades, and Labor is fixing that.
It was spent on a full six months of paid parental leave, with superannuation paid on every one of those weeks so that mums and dads are not robbed of retirement savings for making the choice of raising their kids. It was spent on free TAFE. Even while spending this money on Australians, this Labor government delivered the first back-to-back budget surpluses in nearly two decades.
In four years, Labor has delivered more than a quarter-of-a-trillion-dollar improvement to the budget bottom line. This is what those opposite are calling wasteful. Let me turn to the debt itself, because I think those opposite are hoping that everybody else has short memories just like them.
In September 2013, when the coalition took office, Australia's gross debt was $280 billion. By May 2022, when they left office, gross debt had climbed to $881 billion—so 60 per cent of the trillion-dollar debt was added under the coalition government. And here is what those opposite don't want Australians to hear: if the coalition were still in power today, gross debt would be approaching $1.2 trillion.
If they think a trillion dollars is eye-watering, imagine what $1.2 trillion would make them do. Australia's gross debt would have crossed the trillion-dollar mark 2½ years ago, not this year—that was Treasury's projection. Under this Labor government, gross debt is $173 billion lower than the coalition's 2022 projection.
I commend this Labor government's economic management under Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher to the chamber.