Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I will begin on a more sombre note by talking about a few crucial issues facing everyday Australians and then I will perhaps join in the Christmas cheer and focus on exactly what might be under the Labor Party Christmas tree this year. During the course of question time and afterwards, I thought this parliament moved away from the concerns that everyday Australians have about meeting some of the challenges of the Christmas period.

It remains unanswered why so many Australians feel that they are doing it tough at the moment. When economic data is presented about the unemployment rate of just over five per cent and GDP growth of over three per cent, Australians are perceived to be doing extremely well, but everyday Australians feel it is getting tougher. When they look at the bills they receive at home they see that electricity prices have risen 12½ per cent this year, water and sewerage prices are up nearly 13 per cent, gas prices are up nearly 10 per cent, childcare prices are up over seven per cent, hospital and medical service prices are up seven per cent, postal service prices are up 6½ per cent, property rates and charges are up over six per cent, and education prices are up nearly six per cent.

Even though they have perhaps received a wage increase of around two to three per cent, Australians are still asking why they are worse off. It is because everyday costs are not properly factored into the inflation data. The prices of everyday things that they cannot avoid, such as gas, water, education and health, are rising by far more than the official inflation indicator suggests.

Audiovisual and computing equipment fell over 20 per cent. That is not something Australians buy every day. Pensioners do not buy a new television set once a year. I know that Gerry Harvey and others have been complaining about cheaper goods online, but I say, ‘All strength to the consumer’ if they can get cheaper goods elsewhere. Even though it is difficult for shop owners, I say to those people, ‘The consumers are the ones who are hurting at the moment and without a consumer there is no retail business.’

This government just does not get it when it comes to these key figures. It does not understand that the Australian people on a day-to-day basis feel that they are worse off. If the government did understand that it would not be so self-indulgent in focusing on its own ructions and inner debates; instead, the government would be focusing on structural tax reform and getting the budget deficit down.

As the chief economist of HSBC, someone who worked at the Reserve Bank for 12 years until recently, said this week in an op-ed in the Financial Review, ‘If the government is serious about taking upward pressure off interest rates, it will cut its own budget and cut dramatically.’ But the government is not serious. We have laid down, as the shadow minister for finance said, $50 billion of detailed spending cuts. That is our Christmas gift to the Labor Party. We on this side of the House have the courage to say, ‘Here is a list of $50 billion of cuts that you can make to the budget that we will not oppose because we are so desperately concerned about the capacity of our nation to fund itself over the next few years.’ We are prepared to make the hard yards but the government has not got the courage to do it. Instead it is focused on its own workings.

What we know is that, in the great tradition of the Labor Party and in the great tradition of previous state Labor governments, they will have no limit on their Christmas spending this year. When they give gifts to each other they will say, ‘There are no spending limits. We’ll do whatever we can.’ So you can imagine Christmas Day at the Lodge and the Prime Minister and her spouse running to the Christmas tree wondering what is there from Santa. I thought to myself, what would the Prime Minister be looking for this Christmas? I know what the Prime Minister will be looking for. The Prime Minister will be looking for a series of electronic ankle bracelets with a GPS tracking device for Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten so that she can keep an eye on them during the course of 2011. They will be piping the footage straight through to the Sony BRAVIA 42-inch TV set in the Lodge and she will be watching everything they are doing during 2011, and I bet she will have a data back-up service in Altona, having converted the house for servers. What would the Deputy Prime Minister want for Christmas? Well, I have brought him a present. It has nice pink wrapping. I was thinking, what would the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer, be wanting this Christmas?

See this speech in context