Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know that, when I go back to my electorate tonight, I am going to start meeting people who are struggling with the ninth back-to-back interest rate rise—and the fifth since John Howard promised the people of my electorate to keep interest rates at record lows. The people in Kings Langley, Winston Hill and Toongabbie are right to feel betrayed, because households, families and individuals out there are hurting. In my electorate of Parramatta, the number of households paying more than one-third of their income in mortgage payments in 2001 was 2,214. Five years later, in 2006, it was four times higher, at 9,020 households. Over a third of households that rent are suffering rental stress. Of the detached houses sold in my region in 2006, only four per cent were judged affordable—down from 28 per cent just five years ago. And the situation is likely to have deteriorated further than that, as the figures that I am relying on were produced after the first six back-to-back interest rate rises and there have now been three more since then.

So what do we get from the government in response to all this? We do not see the work of government. We do not see them knuckling down to keep downward pressure on inflation. We do not see them investing in infrastructure or working to improve the skills crisis—both issues that impact on inflation and that have grown into massive problems through 11 years of neglect by this government. No, we do not see that. What we do see is them looking for a way to spin and spend their way out of electoral trouble, even though the Reserve Bank and reputable economists make it clear that spending like a drunken sailor, like we saw John Howard do in the 2004 election campaign—and he has already started again in the marginal seats around Australia—will put upward pressure on interest rates. But we know that it is not upward pressure on interest rates that interests the Prime Minister; it is upward pressure on his votes in marginal seats. We know this is true, not just because it is obvious from the patterns but also because the Treasurer told us in interviews given for the Prime Minister’s biography.

This is a government that is well and truly in denial, in a way that working families around the country cannot be. We have already seen that family pressure denial from the Prime Minister, with his statement, ‘Working families have never been better off,’ and we have already had, ‘It’s all the states’ fault.’ That has been recognised as drivel by economist after economist. And from the Treasurer, when talking about skills shortages and upward pressure on interest rates as a result, we heard: ‘It’s a good problem to have.’ Nothing that puts upward pressure on interest rates is a good problem to have. But the skills shortage is a good problem to solve. This government has had 11 years to solve it, and what do we get? We get: ‘It’s a good problem to have.’ I am looking forward to telling that to the people in my electorate tomorrow when I go doorknocking.

And what did we get today? We got: ‘Families are under incredible financial pressure because of our prosperity. It’s the price of our prosperity. We’re too prosperous,’ says the Prime Minister. I have been doorknocking in my electorate for three years now, and I am looking forward to explaining to people who are suffering incredible financial pressure, particularly those in Northmead—which has one of the highest insolvency rates in the country and the highest number of repossessions—that the problem is that they are too prosperous. This goes to show just how much John Howard has lost touch with ordinary Australians. I meet people in my electorate—and I met another one on Sunday—who have started to reach the conclusion that their children will not be better off than they are. After 15 years of unprecedented levels of growth, people are saying to me that they now believe that their children will not be better off than they are. That is how profound the concern out there is about the cost of living, the cost of education, the effect of Work Choices—which rips away any semblance of security—housing affordability and these latest increases in interest rates.

Today John Howard tried to get a little bit back in touch. I notice that he has been trying for a few days. Today he qualified his statements by saying that he knows that some families are not sharing in the prosperity. He needs to get a bit further in touch, because there are some suburbs in my electorate where the opposite is absolutely true. There are some families who are sharing in the prosperity, but the vast majority are not. There is no excuse for this government or any government—not even one that has so lost touch—to not notice the pain of families. This government is so filled with hubris and self-congratulation that it does not even notice the pain of families. We on the Labor side believe that every Australian deserves secure, affordable housing. We will work hard, if the Australian people give us the opportunity, to help Australians achieve their housing aspirations.

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