PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Dr TRISH COOK (Bullwinkel) (18:49): Australians are working hard, and we know that they're doing it tough right now. While our economy already faced an inflation challenge coming out of the pandemic, the global instability, most notably the re-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, is making things significantly harder. This renewed conflict is pushing up global energy prices, fuel costs and inflation right across the globe, and Australia is not immune.
The latest ABS data shows that, while our underlying inflation remains stable, the annual headline inflation ticked up in August, driven almost entirely by higher global fuel costs and the unwinding of previous energy rebates. The market is pricing in rate rises across every major advanced economy. Australian workers didn't choose this war, but they are paying a heavy price for it.
From an economic and moral point of view, an end to this conflict cannot come soon enough. In times of global uncertainty, responsible government matters more than ever. We take our full share of responsibility in the fight against inflation by managing the budget carefully and living within our means.
Let's look at our track record. Real spending growth over our four years in office has averaged just two per cent, less than half of what our predecessors averaged and well below the 30-year average. When we came to office, spending was nearly a third of the economy.
We brought that down to 25 per cent to 26 per cent, roughly a quarter. We have found nearly $180 billion in savings and reprioritisations across our budgets and updates. In our most recent budget alone, we are reforming structural savings, including $38 billion, by restoring the NDIS to its original intent and billions more cutting back on expensive external contractors and targeted reductions in green energy programs.
Because of this discipline, our latest budget outcome is $22 billion better than estimated, nearly half the deficit of what we inherited. Gross debt is nearly $200 billion lower than when we took office, saving taxpayers $70 billion in interest costs over the decade. That's why Australia remains one of nine countries across the globe with the AAA credit rating from all three major international ratings agencies.
Because we are managing the nation's books responsibly, we are able to roll out continuous, meaningful cost-of-living relief for everyday Australians. We're helping people keep more of what they earn. We have delivered income tax five times in five different ways, putting nearly $3,000 a year back into the pockets of the average worker by 2028.
This includes a new $250 working Australians tax offset and a $1,000 instant tax deduction. We have made medicines cheaper, expanded bulk-billing and urgent care clinics and raised the Medicare low-income threshold so over a million low-income earners pay little to no levy. We've backed higher wages, lifting the national minimum wage to help our lowest paid workers to keep pace.
And, through our tax and housing reforms, we're helping more than 75,000 Australians realise the dream of homeownership by making the property market fairer while safeguarding existing investments. The coalition left office with an inflation rate north of six per cent and rapidly rising, alongside $600 billion in debt accumulated before the pandemic even hit.
Today they are promising to the public $110 billion in unfunded commitments. But, when the time came to support working families and fix the housing markets, what did they do? The coalition voted against our plan to cut income taxes, they voted against making the housing market fairer, and they voted against more cost-of-living relief, cheaper medicines and wages growth.
By their own economic logic, their approach of bigger deficits and higher spending would pump inflation and force interest rates even higher and leave Australian workers significantly worse off. This government will not waver. We will continue to deliver responsible fiscal management, ease cost-of-living pressures and build a stronger, fairer economy for every Australian.
We welcome the opposition's support for cost-of-living measures.