Anthony Albanese has fronted up to his first Question Time as Prime Minister as new inflation figures showed consumer prices are rising faster than wages.
Look back on our live blog for updates as it happened.
Key events
- We’re now going to follow the federal parliament Question Time
- Let's take a look at groceries
- Does rising inflation mean more interest rate hikes?
- What are other ways to tackle rising inflation?
- Will there be any real wage growth in the next 12 months?
- Chalmers warns of more pressures to come
- The annual inflation figure has risen to 6.1 per cent
- When will the figures be released?
Live updates
By Shiloh Payne
Question Time has concluded
Here’s ABC political reporter Jane Norman on News Channel with a recap:
The new Speaker seemed to have a pretty good grasp of the standing order, maintaining a fair bit of control over the house in that session. We are gleaning some insights into the Coalition's tactics through this Question Time.
Many questions devoted to trying to — unsuccessfully really — tie the Prime Minister to dodgy union behaviour in the wake of Labor's move to abolish the ABCC. So clearly that is where the opposition is going. For its part, the government focus in its Dorothy Dixers is to talk about its track record and where it is going policy-wise.
[There was a] bit of argy-bargy between both sides after the Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neill accused the Coalition of acts of cowardice and breaching the trust of the Australian public, and this is all because of the Home Affairs report released late last week which confirmed that the office of the former prime minister Scott Morrison put pressure on officials to confirm the interception of an asylum seeker boat at sea [on election day]. This operation was ongoing. We were told Border Force officials were coming under pressure to put out a statement just as millions of Australians were casting their votes.
We're going to close the blog here. Thanks for joining us today.
You can keep up to date with the latest news here on the ABC News website and on our app.
By Shiloh Payne
Chalmers knocks back Greens dental push
Here comes Greens leader Adam Bandt, asking if stage 3 tax cuts will be ditched in favour of bringing dental care into Medicare, a policy the Greens say will cost more than $70 billion over a decade.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says tax cuts are "already in the budget" and "we do not intend to change that".
He says the Greens proposal "would not do anything about the new inflation challenges".
By Shiloh Payne
Advocacy on climate change
Chris Bowen says he has introduced a new climate bill today on behalf of the government.
He says it "enshrines in law" new climate targets.
By Shiloh Payne
Another question on the CFMEU
The Coalition is going hard on the CFMEU and the projected demise of the ABCC.
Liberal MP Melissa Price asks if abolishing "the dedicated industry watchdog" will give the upper hand to a union which "displays an outrageous disregard for Australian industrial norms" and, in doing so, "increase the cost of new schools and hospitals."
Albanese says the ABCC "wasted time and taxpayer public money prosecuting two CFMEU officials for, to quote from a Federal Court decision, having a cup of tea with a mate."
He accuses "external forces" of "beating up what is just a really ordinary situation that amounts to virtually nothing. That is the Federal Court's ruling in the decision.
"The Federal Court has also dismissed the ABCC for its prosecutions, labelling them unnecessarily inflammatory and another quote, 'conducted as a blood sport.'" he continues.
"It is what the Federal Court have had to say about these actions that the member raised, and I thank you very much for her question."
He adds: "My view is very clear — that all workers should be treated equally, that unions should behave properly, the employer organisations will behave properly and that there is a common interest between unions and employers, which is why they will be brought together in the jobs and skills summit."
By Shiloh Payne
Addressing skills shortage
Brendon O'Connor says the government understands how important it is to fill skills shortages in the labour market.
He says he is working with states and territories, as well as employers and unions to fill the gaps.
"There are shortages in aged care, disability care, children's services, care industries generally are really, really in need of supplier skills and labour," he says.
He says it's an issue that needs to be tackled immediately.
By Shiloh Payne
The rising cost of living and early childhood education
Anne Aly says the cost of childhood education is "an issue of great concern".
She says Labor has a cheap childcare plan to make early education affordable for 1.26 million families.
By Shiloh Payne
We're back to IR reform
Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor is asked if he has "met with any CFMEU officials regarding the abolition of the construction watchdog?"
"Can I indicate to the house that I have not spoken to any official of the CFMEU in relation to this matter," he responds.
You may recall that this week the government announced that it would bring in legislation to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
By Shiloh Payne
What policy changes are being made to make sure seniors don't rely on cashless debit cards?
Amanda Rishworth, the minister for social services, has been asked about cashless debit cards.
She says she will be listening to service providers and Indigenous communities in coming weeks to look at the complex problem surrounding cashless debit cards.
By Shiloh Payne
Student loans and the cost of living
Independent Andrew Wilkie lobs a question about the cost of living and HECS debt.
Education Minister Jason Clare is on his feet. He says "the issue of affordability …will be one of the things that will be looked at by the government" as part of its new "universities accord".
By Shiloh Payne
Addressing aged care failings
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells has been asked what is being done to address failings in aged care.
She says she has introduced two bills to protect people living in aged care.
By Shiloh Payne
Albanese on energy and power bills
Angus Taylor asks the PM when Australians will see the $271 decrease in power bills which he says Labor promised during the election campaign.
Albanese hits back, accusing the former government of being "obsessed with power, but they totally failed on energy [policy]". We then get some wrangling on points of order.
"One of the previous government's final acts was to hide that energy prices would be going up in July," he says.
By Shiloh Payne
PM asked about workplace reform
Anthony Albanese has been asked about the government's proposed changes to the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
He responds by accusing the Coalition of going back to the "same old bucket".
"They can ask questions about inflation, they can ask questions about cost of living, they can ask questions about the health pandemic, they can ask questions about foot-and-mouth disease, they can ask questions about a whole range of issues, and what do we get?" he asks rhetorically.
By Shiloh Payne
Is foot and mouth disease 'uncontrolled' and 'increasing'?
Nationals leader David Littleproud has asked about the government’s management of foot and mouth disease.
The minister representing the minister for agriculture says it’s an issue the government is taking “very seriously”.
The government is rolling out sanitisation maps and has been taking advice from vets and the agriculture department.
By Shiloh Payne
An update on the latest global and domestic data
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been asked what the latest global and domestic data means for the economy and how the government is responding.
He says the release at the International Monetary Fund overnight showed that the global economy is "heading down a precarious and perilous path".
"They have substantially downgraded their expectations for global growth and so the challenges facing the global economy are substantial," he says.
By Shiloh Payne
Prime Minister on the government's plans for the future
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been asked how the government is working towards plans for a better future, here's what he had to say:
"On 21 May, the Australian people voted to change and we have hit the ground running as a new government. We have not wasted a day. We have put in a submission, as we said we would do, to say that people on the minimum wage of $20 and 33 cents an hour should not go backwards and remember, the election campaign I held up the dollar and said if people on the minimum wage got a dollar increase per hour then the sky would not fall in.
Those opposite said it would, that it would wreck the economy. We got a decision of 5.2% out of the Fair Work Commission and I am pleased that occurred.
We also acted very quickly, faster than any previous government has, to deal with the natural disaster of the floods that have hit Queensland and NSW... we had payments in people's bank accounts quicker than any previous natural disaster."
By Shiloh Payne
We’re now going to follow the federal parliament Question Time
It's the first Question Time for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
We'll be taking you through the updates right here.
By Shiloh Payne
The difference between discretionary and non-discretionary inflation
Here's Gareth Hutchens:
This graph shows something important.
It shows that prices are rising very quickly for things people can’t avoid.
Consider things like food, petrol, rent, and health costs. We can’t avoid those. We need them to survive. Economists call them “non-discretionary” items. We have no option but to buy them.
But then there are goods we can avoid, like recreation, alcohol, household furnishings, and holidays. They’re called “discretionary” goods and services because we can avoid paying for them if we want.
According to the latest data, the prices for things we have to buy – the non-discretionary items – have risen by 7.6 per cent over the last year, while the discretionary items have only risen by 4 per cent.
By Shiloh Payne
The Greens on the rising cost of living
Greens leader Adam Bandt has called on the government to look at ways to reduce the cost of living after inflation figures were released this morning.
"People are under huge pressure with low wages and rising costs. The government can do something about this," he says.
"The government can make people's lives better by reducing the costs that people face every day, by doing things like getting dental into Medicare."
By Shiloh Payne
Did we print too much money?
The US government has seen inflation rise following the printing of trillions of dollars. Did the Australian government print lots of money during the pandemic, or are our inflation issues simply related to shortages?
- Jude
Hey Jude, here's what Gareth Hutchens has to say about this:
The decision by the US government to print trillions of dollars isn’t the only reason why inflation has soared in the US.
Remember, the US government printed trillions of dollars during, and after, the 2007-09 financial crisis and it didn’t lead to inflation like this.
What we’re currently seeing is the consequence of governments around the world having shut down large parts of their economies in 2020 and 2021 to prevent the coronavirus spreading before vaccines existed.
The modern world had never done anything like that - and those shutdowns wreaked havoc on global supply chains.
At the same time, global governments spent trillions of dollars subsidising the wages of workers and businesses to keep people going through the lockdowns, which gave people money to spend. A lot of that money was saved, and lot of it is being used to buy things now.
But also, think about what’s happened to the airline industry, as a single case study of some of the problems we’re seeing. During the lockdowns, airline executives fired pilots and flight crew and baggage handlers, seriously depleting their workforces. Now that flights have resumed, what are we seeing in airports? Chaos. Unbelievably long queues. Lost baggage around the world. Scores of cancelled flights. And soaring prices for tickets. There’s a lot of economics to unpack in that case study. Then, try to think about how other industries might be dealing with their own special problems.
When it comes to Australia’s government, it spent hundreds of billions of extra dollars through the pandemic to keep workers alive and businesses viable, and a huge amount of that money was saved by households.
But the inflation we’re seeing in Australia is not all related to the demand that that extra money is supporting.
This inflation is a global problem, with each country also dealing with their own unique domestic causes of inflation.
By Shiloh Payne
Sandra's trying to wear the cost of inflation for her business — but can it last?
Here's a report from ABC journalist Oliver Gordon:
Sandra Cucuzza reckons the cost of supplies for her inner-Melbourne bakery have risen by around 30 per cent.
If she were to factor in the rising cost of fresh strawberries for her pastries, the price of a danish would leap to around $12, she estimates.
"If I do that there is no way you're going to continue to come in to buy a danish every day. So we basically are trying to wear the increase on our side," she said.
"If it keeps going like this, where I am producing and at the end of the day I'm not getting anything back apart from enough money to pay for the wages and my raw materials … I don't know how much longer I can do that."
For Ms Cucuzza, the economic crunch has been intensified by a surge in COVID-19 cases, sending more Melburnians back to working from home.
"There are not as many people coming to the area, so foot traffic is much less … there would be people that would come in every single day, now I'm lucky if I see them twice a week," she said.
"It just is really difficult to maintain production because you don't know how many people you're going to have on any given day."
