Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:21): Thanks to the honourable member for his question. Since the parliament last sat, we got inflation data which showed that underlying inflation, monthly inflation and non-tradeable inflation all continue to moderate. We also got new numbers last week in the national accounts. What that showed is that the economy barely grew in the June quarter—0.2 per cent and one per cent through the year. That is the slowest growth in our economy since 2020. The basic story of the national accounts was that weaknesses in the household part of the national accounts and private investment were offset by exports and public final demand. The weakness in our economy is the inevitable consequence of three things: firstly, global economic uncertainty; secondly, persistent price pressures in our economy; and, thirdly, the impact of higher interest rates on our economy. The main take-out was that consumption is going backwards in our economy right now, discretionary spending fell substantially and household saving is very low. These are all signs, as we know—or at least this side of the House understands—that people are doing it tough, and that's why our cost-of-living help is so important and why it's so important that household incomes grew in the most recent numbers. As I said earlier, those opposite don't support cost-of-living help. They want higher interest rates. They want a recession for political reasons, and they were very disappointed when they didn't get one. Honourable members interjecting— Dr CHALMERS: We know this by their reaction right now and we know this from their reaction last week. We also know that, if we had followed their advice, we'd be in recession right now, and we're not. This side of the House is fighting inflation without ignoring the risks to growth and fighting inflation while recognising the pressures that people are under. We're getting the balance right—budget repair, cleaning up the mess that we inherited from those opposite, turning big Liberal deficits into big Labor surpluses, rolling out cost-of-living help, helping in the fight against inflation and investing in housing, skills and energy and in a future made in Australia. While two-thirds of the OECD have had at least one negative quarter in recent times, we are managing the economy responsibly. We're rolling out that cost-of-living help, and we're avoiding recession. Here, there's a very important contrast. The Australian people know that we're helping them with the cost of living, we're fighting inflation, we're cleaning up the budget, and we're investing in the future. But we are in the third year of a three-year parliamentary term, and those opposite still have no credible or costed economic policies to speak of. They won't come clean on what their $315 billion in cuts will do to push our economy into recession and what they mean for Medicare, for pensions and payments or for the other services that Australians rely on. (Time expired)