Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (15:24): How pathetic. Who puts forward an MPI about the economy and then gets to the ninth minute of his speech and realises he hasn't mentioned it yet? He read out a couple of little token dot points before he got back to his main business of trying to divide this community. At a time when we've got no shortage of economic and social challenges, his main game and his main priority is to try and set Australians against Australians. On Wednesday I experienced a profound moment of solidarity with the member for Hume, the shadow Treasurer, and that was when the Leader of the Opposition tried to stop me talking about the economy. This is a very familiar experience for the shadow Treasurer. The member for Hume and I don't have a lot in common, but we do have that in common. The Leader of the Opposition wants neither of us talking about the economy. That's why he relegates the shadow Treasurer to this humiliating silence day after day. It's why we still didn't get any questions whatsoever in this entire week from those opposite on the cost of living, inflation, employment, wages or closing the gender pay gap. There's been absolutely nothing on the economy all week. Doesn't that speak volumes about the approach that is being taken by those opposite? I want the House and the people who are watching and listening outside the House to understand that this week on this Labor side of the parliament, under Prime Minister Albanese and our team, we've advanced our agenda on paying super on paid parental leave. We've advanced our agenda on making multinational companies pay their fair share of tax. We've made progress on the NDIS. We've approved the world's biggest solar precinct. We've advanced our efforts to cut HECS debt for millions of people. We've advanced our efforts when it comes to the net zero authority, and we've strengthened our ties with Indonesia. We've done all of those things while maintaining a primary focus on the cost of living and rolling out substantial and meaningful cost-of-living help in the most responsible way. That's how we've spent our week, and that's how we've spent the last few days of question time. We've focused on the cost of living because that is the No. 1 thing that people are confronting in the communities that we represent. Because these colleagues are in touch with their local communities, they know that our highest priority is and must be rolling out a tax cut for every taxpayer and energy bill relief for every household, making medicines cheaper, helping with rent, making early childhood education cheaper, paying educators fairly for the important work that they do, getting wages moving again and closing the gender pay gap. These are our priorities, and we have made progress this week. At a time when the cost of living is the No. 1 issue in our communities, those opposite couldn't care less. That's not just something I say; it's something we know from the fact that on Thursday afternoon, at the end of a long sitting week, not once did they ask us about the cost of living or, indeed, anything about the economy. I've told the House how we have spent our week. The Leader of the Opposition has spent the whole week trying to divide the community, and that's because it's all he knows and all he does. His little dog whistle plays only one tune, and we heard it all week. As I said the other day, when the Leader of the Opposition plays his little dog whistle, the shadow Treasurer rolls over. We saw once again today that the shadow Treasurer is in the doghouse. The Prime Minister has Toto and the Leader for the Opposition has the member for Hume, but Toto has more to offer the economic debate in this country than the shadow Treasurer does. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Excuse me, Treasurer. The member for Moncrieff on a point of order. Ms Bell: The Treasurer is aware that reflections on members are not acceptable in the House. I ask him to withdraw. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Moncrieff, I gave a warning during the Leader of the Opposition's speech, as well, that any members participating in this debate should be mindful of the language that they use. I ask the Treasurer to be a little bit reflective on that request. The Leader of the Opposition did not withdraw; he was asked to by another member and did not. I'm asking you to now be reflective and to desist from using language that is going to be inflammatory and might cause offence. Dr CHALMERS: Out of respect for you, Deputy Speaker, why don't I do one better than that and withdraw and do something that the opposition member wasn't prepared to do. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I really appreciate that, and the House appreciates it, too. Dr CHALMERS: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. The point I'm making is that we will start to take the shadow Treasurer seriously when his own colleagues do and give him a question, and there is absolutely no sign of that. We know why there's been a sole focus from those opposite on trying to divide our community and diminish our country. It's because they're trying to distract from the fact that we are in the third year of a parliamentary term and we still haven't heard one costed or credible policy on the economy or the cost of living from those opposite. This is quite an extraordinary thing: the third year of a three-year parliamentary term and not one idea about fighting inflation nor one policy for the cost of living. I think the thing people are starting to cotton on to, in terms of the silence of those opposite on the economy and their motives for that, is that the shadow Treasurer and the shadow minister for finance have both said there is $315 billion too much spending in our budget, and the logical conclusion from that is that they will cut $315 billion from the budget. So they need to come clean on what their $315 billion in secret cuts means for Medicare and what it means for pensions. One of the reasons for that spending is the indexation of the pension. We wrongly assumed it was a bipartisan position that the pension be indexed to keep up with the cost of living, but we will assume that no more, because they have said that indexing the pension or investing in Medicare or spending on the PBS is, in their words, 'wasteful spending'. So let's have no more delays when it comes to those opposite and their $315 billion in secret cuts. Let's hear where the axe will fall, and let's hear what it means for Medicare and pensions and for the economy more broadly. The other thing that this whole confected, divisive outrage has been all about this week is that in their heart of hearts, if those opposite know that people are under pressure, they want more inflation. They want higher interest rates. They want higher unemployment. They want a more divided community. In the absence of any compelling or costed or credible policies, they think their best way to sneak back into office is through the back door. They think that, if inflation is higher and interest rates are higher and people are under more pressure, those opposite will profit from that politically, and they should be ashamed of themselves for taking that view. We take a completely different view. We don't pretend for one second that all the challenges in our economy have been solved. We acknowledge that people are still under pressure, but we know that inflation had a six in front of it when we came to office and it's got a three in front of it now. Under Prime Minister Albanese, we've created almost a million jobs, and that's never happened before in a parliamentary term. We know that real wages are growing again. They were falling under those opposite. We know that nominal wages growth is almost double what we saw in their wasted decade of deliberate wage stagnation and wage suppression. We know that tax cuts are rolling out for every taxpayer. Those opposite wanted tax cuts for only some taxpayers; they wanted tax cuts only for people who were already doing relatively well in comparison to others. We also know that in a little over two years in office we have turned two enormous Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses, and the Reserve Bank governor has said that that is helping in the fight against inflation. So, whether it's our responsible economic management, whether it's our cost-of-living relief—which is meaningful and substantial but designed in the most responsible way—whether it's our investments in the future, whether it's paying super on PPL or whether it's all the other things we've been working on this week, the contrast could not be clearer: a Labor side of this parliament who cares deeply about and understand the pressures on people and is responding with real and responsible policy versus an opposition that could not care less about the pressures people are under. They are horrendously out of touch. They would rather start another culture war than finish the fight against inflation, and every question time this week has made that clear.