Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Deakin, I do not know which world you are in, mate, but it is not the real world. The cost of living and its impact are eloquently summarised by an essay called ‘Divided nations: cracks in the veneer’, which talks about a gentleman who lives in an outer suburban area. It says:

He lives with his family in Hoppers Crossing, in the outer tract of Melbourne’s rapidly expanding western growth corridor. It’s a place like many on the fringes of Australia’s cities, where hopeful households have flocked in recent years chasing the promise of a better life enriched by the Australian dream of home ownership.

But [this gentleman’s] dream is souring. Escalating petrol prices and mortgage interest rates have pushed him to take on a second job to keep his family’s budget in the black. His edgy neighbours are slashing their spending to make ends meet. Holidays, entertainment, new appliances and health insurance have all been cut. “It’s just getting so hard,” he told the Herald Sun in May. “They say we live in the lucky country but that’s crap when people have to live like this.”

So I do not know what the member for Deakin thinks about that; that is obviously not the real world! I wonder what they would make of the price of petrol. On Monday morning, on 28 February, unleaded prices at service stations in my electorate were between $1.08 and $1.12 and all of a sudden, that very same morning, they jumped up to $1.21.6 or $1.22.9. For what reason? Why does the government just sit idly by when that happens, particularly when so many of my constituents are reliant upon cars?

We have spoken about the increase in private health insurance, and when you look emergency relief providers you see that their offices are being flooded by people who are seeking financial support and counselling because of the difficulties of the increased cost of living.

So we have two worlds: we have the world of the member for Deakin—the utopia he and the government have put forward—and we have the real world. It is about time that we actually reflected the concerns of people struggling with the costs of living, struggling to pay for child care, worried about their jobs, worried about their futures and worrying about not being able to take out private health insurance. Kick this mob out of government. (Time expired)

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