Treasurer defends government’s economic management after up-tick

Now for the political reaction to today's inflation figures. Here's political reporter Stephanie Borys at parliament house in Canberra.

Transcript

00:00Not good figures for the Treasurer or households for that matter. As we've just heard, inflation

00:06figures are up and where it's really hurting households is around childcare, rents, water

00:12and power prices. So cost of living pressures remain front and centre, not just for households

00:18but for the government too in terms of how it can address those pressures. And we saw

00:24in question time today the opposition really pushing the government on what more it can

00:29do to help households. The government using the chance to list the measures it's already

00:34introduced around reducing HECS debts for example, assisting more people in being able to access

00:40the GP without having to pay. But with these inflation figures there will be more pressure

00:45on the government to do further measures to help out households that are still really struggling.

00:51Let's take a listen to the Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking earlier today, acknowledging the pain

00:56that many households are feeling. We do acknowledge that the through the year number was higher

01:03than we'd like it to be, but driven partly by temporary factors like the removal of state

01:10energy rebates. We understand that Australians are still under pressure and that's why our

01:16cost of living help, delivered in the most responsible way that we can, is so important.

01:23Now some economists are predicting there could be a rate hike next year and that's something

01:29that the Deputy Liberal Leader Ted O'Brien jumped on earlier today when he was speaking

01:34at the National Press Club.

01:37With just 29 days until Christmas, this is the worst possible news for struggling mortgage

01:44holders who can now kiss goodbye to any rate cut. Any rate cut at all.

01:54And so Steffi, these figures have led to further questions about the Federal energy rebate. Any

01:59detail on whether there will be more support for households?

02:03Yeah so Jo, initially households were given $300 to help reduce their power bills. This year there was

02:10another $150 offered, but that all kind of ends on December 31. There's no plan at this stage for what

02:18happens after that. Now senior government ministers have been asked in recent weeks sort of for an answer

02:25on this given we are getting towards the end of November. We kind of got the clearest indication yet that at the

02:30very least something may be still considered. The Treasurer today saying a decision is yet to be made but

02:38any decision would be announced in the mid-year economic update. Of course that's like a bit of a

02:42mini budget that's held in the middle of December. For the government it's a really fine balancing,

02:48you know, balancing line for them. They've got to look at how much they're spending because these energy

02:54rebates have been costing billions of dollars, but at the same time they want to look for other ways that

02:59they can help households as they face rising power bills. And just on another issue Steffi,

03:05the government's really keen to get its environmental laws through this last week of parliament. Where's

03:11that at now? Yeah it looks like it's moving towards the finish line Jo. So these environmental laws,

03:16a review about five years ago found that they were outdated and really needed a huge overhaul. So

03:22it's been taking a number of years to get to this point. The Environment Minister Murray Watts says

03:28he believes he's found a good balance between the need to protect the environment but also to ensure

03:34that constructions can be approved, to ensure there's more buildings and more housing in Australia. So

03:41he's been negotiating with both the Greens and the Coalition. The reason being he needs

03:46one of those parties in order to get this legislation through the Senate. He says he doesn't mind who it

03:51is, he just wants a deal by the end of the week. He set that deadline for himself and we're hearing

03:56this afternoon it looks like a deal could be made with the Greens. That's the way it's going at the

04:01moment Jo. Anything can happen in politics but that looks like where it's heading at the moment.