QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator KOVACIC (New South Wales) (15:01): I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today. Well, that was quite a display in relation to a number of answers to questions, but I'll start particularly with those we just heard from Senator Gallagher. I don't even know where to begin.

That in itself was a stunning denial of what Australians already know and, in fact, probably a classic case of gaslighting. To suggest that this government has taken hold and has improved inflation is extraordinary. Senator Gallagher comments that, when they came into government, inflation was galloping away at six per cent and now has a three in front of it.

She decides does not consider the facts that during the period of the last coalition government average inflation was 2.2 per cent and average inflation under this government from June 2022 until June 2026 is four per cent. That's double. That's twice as much.

But we all know that. Australians are living that. To try and pretend that that is not occurring is disrespectful, it's egregious and it suggests that Australians don't actually understand what is going on in their own lives.

We have seen the largest collapse in living standards in the developed world under the Albanese Labor government. We are one of only three developed countries where rates haven't come down in the past two years. Every single one of those developed countries has also experienced the same global impacts and the same global shocks, and the reason that they've been able to manage those is that they went into those global shocks in a better position than we did.

The problem is that this government has mismanaged our economy, and Australians are paying the price for that. We have higher core inflation than any advanced economy not because of anything that happened in the past but because of everything that has occurred under the Albanese Labor government. We have higher core inflation than the UK.

We have higher core inflation than the US. We have higher core inflation than Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy and France all because the Albanese Labor government has squandered and damaged Australia's economy, and they are pretending like there is nothing to see here. And now we have the highest-taxing government in Australia's history sitting across from us crushing the hopes and dreams of young Australians, crushing small business and dressing it up as intergenerational equity.

It is an intergenerational fraud, and they should be ashamed of themselves. I also want to make a quick comment in relation to Senator Ruston's question on the comments on social media from Mr Muldoon. I endorse my colleague Senator Nampijinpa Price's comment that Mr Muldoon's remarks are repulsive, which they are.

Senator Wong said that the comments are not acceptable and the Prime Minister has made that clear. Well, the question I have is are they only unacceptable because they are now quite public, because those comments have been there for quite some time. The comments in relation to Peta Credlin and the references to Margaret Thatcher were made on 12 June 2022, four years ago.

The comments in relation to my colleague Dave Sharma, about being a fake Jew, were made on 22 April 2022. And the comments about my colleague Senator Nampijinpa Price were made on 15 October 2023. Perhaps the Prime Minister would like to answer that.