Opening Remarks - Cabinet Meeting

Well, thanks everyone. Last week, of course, we had the inflation figures down to 2.7 per cent from 3.5 per cent, and it's been a big effort to deliver that whilst we've been delivering on cost of living relief for people. Today, we have the figures where Jim and Katy will be out there in a little while announcing the surplus of $15.8 billion. That follows the $22 billion surplus achieved last year, the largest back-to-back surpluses on record. So, we've managed to turn Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses, and that has assisted in putting that downward pressure on inflation at the same time as we've delivered tax cuts for every single Australian taxpayer, some 13.6 million of them, making a difference for people. So our focus has been, around this room, on delivering cost of living relief. And it's a great credit to everyone in this room, but particularly our economic leaders in Jim and Katy in achieving this outcome. We know there's more work to do, and today we undertake that, as we will continue to do so in our ERC meetings and in our processes going forward. At the same time, we are planning on - where does the economic growth come in the future? And the Future Made in Australia agenda is an important part of that. The path to net-zero is a challenge, but it's also an enormous opportunity for Australia. And there's no country you'd rather be than Australia. I do note that today in the United Kingdom, the last coal-fired power station gets turned off. That's an indication of how significant a transition in the global economy that is underway is. Coal provided the impetus for powering the industrial revolution that led to Great Britain being an economic powerhouse. The fact that it is the final day for coal-fired power in the UK is just one indication of the transition that's going on. And we are shaping that transition to make sure that we make more things here in Australia, that we take advantage of the resources that we have under the ground and in sky to power our economic future and it's one made right here. So we know as well we are in difficult global times. We continue to see the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also the conflict in the Middle East, and we have continued to call for a de-escalation of that conflict in the Middle East. At the same time, we've seen worrying signs over the weekend. We do not want people to bring radical ideologies and conflict here. Our multiculturalism and social cohesion cannot be taken for granted, and it's important that we continue to stress that that is the case as we go forward as well. So we've got a lot of work to do today. We, of course, will also be talking through some pretty positive things for legislation that we're planning to introduce next week as well. So we'll get on with that business this morning.