QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:42): Thank you to the wonderful member for Dickson for her very important question—she's a very proud Queenslander and an outstanding colleague on this side of the House. The member for Dickson knows, and we all know, that superannuation is for retirement. It means more money and more security for workers, and, at the same time, it takes pressure of the budget.
The Intergenerational report that we release in a couple of weeks will show that, among our many advantages as a country, super is one of the best things that Australia has got going for us as the intergenerational and global challenges mount. That is why it is so absolutely bonkers that One Nation is coming after superannuation and the Liberals and Nationals are copying them.
On this side of the House, we back super because we back workers. We back them with more super, we back them higher wages, we back them with five tax cuts, we back them with a fairer housing market, and we back them with more cost-of-living help. All of that is at risk from those opposite.
We're backing workers, and we're doing it in the most responsible way: finding savings in the budget, restraining spending and getting the budget in much better nick than we inherited from those opposite. Thanks to our responsible economic management, international ratings agencies like S&P Global and Moody's have just recently reaffirmed Australia's AAA credit rating.
S&P said that 'Australia's fiscal performance is sound, and Australia has modest public debt by international standards'. Moody's said, 'Debt ratios at the Commonwealth level remain low, and the government's fiscal strategy is supported by expenditure reforms and a record of conservative budgeting.' Compare that to the situation in our home state of Queensland.
It's very troubling to see that the Queensland government risks having its credit rating downgraded. As a Queenslander, I am concerned that, despite substantial and increased Commonwealth support for Queensland, the Queensland government's fiscal position has experienced a sharp deterioration, despite warnings from S&P in October last year and again in February this year.
We are managing the budget more responsibly, which is more important in the face of substantial global economic uncertainty. The re-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East in recent days is weighing on global growth and pushing up global inflation. In fact, already, inflation has gone up in six of the G7 economies.
For the first time since July, the global oil price jumped back over $100 a barrel overnight. And so these developments around the world are seeing markets pricing in higher rates and pushing up bond yields, which we were talking about before. The European Central Bank is expected to raise rates tonight.
The market is pricing in a rate hike in every single major advanced economy. The US 10-year yield is up around 90 basis points since the conflict broke out, the highest level since 2023. So the point is this: in the face of this uncertainty, we'll continue to deliver responsible economic management.
That means backing super and backing workers— (Time expired)