Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

Nowhere did this hurt more than in my electorate of Blaxland where, at the peak in 2007, we had 60 homes a month being repossessed. That is three homes a day for every working day being repossessed because Australian families could not cope with the cost-of-living pressures brought upon them by 10 interest rate rises in a row. On top of that, there was Work Choices whereby more than one million Australians had their wages or entitlements cut. And what was the response of the Liberal Party then? What was the response of the then Liberal Party Prime Minister? It was that Australians had never been better off. Give me a break. If gold medals were handed out for failing to help Australian families with the cost of living, then the Leader of the Opposition would look like Mr T. So I welcome a debate on cost of living, because it gives the government the opportunity to expose this hypocrisy for what it is and to expose the ludicrous scare campaign that is now being run by the Leader of the Opposition.

The government understands that Australians struggle with cost-of-living pressures. It always does. We would never be so stupid as to say Australians have never been better off. We understand that Australians always struggle with cost-of-living pressures. That is why we stimulated the economy—to protect Australian jobs and keep food on the table. That is why we increased the pension.

Mr McCormack interjecting—

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