Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always an honour to speak on an MPI. I know that we normally stand up here and throw abuse backwards and forwards, but I get the honour of following the member for Adelaide, who has got a very exciting time ahead of her—a tough gig—and I cannot hurl abuse at a lady at such an exciting time. I am also a little bit shy of time, so I thought I would attack it a little bit differently at the tail end of the debate today. I thought I would focus on some facts—something normally glaringly missing from the speeches of those standing opposite.

Put simply, this MPI revolves around competence and cost of living. Today I would like to tackle that back-to-front. On cost of living: this government came into power with a pledge to get rid of the carbon tax. Doing this not only decreased the average household's bills by $550 a year but we kept in place the compensation package that went with the carbon tax. I noticed today—it was particularly interesting—that the alternative Treasurer of this country was batting at third drop, quite a hefty demise, and of course the major part of the compensation package was that the tax-free threshold was increased to $18,200, a fact that he battled to grapple with last week. The second point about the carbon tax is that, in the December quarter, households on average around Australia experienced a 5.1 per cent decrease in their electricity bills, the biggest drop since statistics have been measured, obviously putting more money in families' pockets.

Interest rates have had a 0.25 per cent decrease in the last month. Whilst we focus traditionally on mortgages—and that is a good thing; $750 saved to a family on a typical $300,000 mortgage—it is also important on the business side of the equation. Lower cost of funds equals increased investments and jobs, and that is always a good thing. Petrol prices are an average 43c a litre cheaper today than at the budget. If you look at overall inflation at the December quarter you will see that it is sitting at around 1.7 per cent. Obviously that is a very low rate.

I will move to competence. In my electorate of Reid, there is no bigger issue than WestConnex. This week we have found that, if there is a Labor government elected in New South Wales, they will walk away from the vast majority of the project, exactly like their cousins south of the border did.

Let's have a look at the free trade agreements that we have got through. We have agreements with Japan and Korea in place. Funnily enough, that feeds into cost of living in so far as it will lag as we produce investment and expand business into the country. If you look at a Mazda 3 car, for example—the most popular car bought in Australia—in January it decreased in price by $2,100.

I see the member for Wentworth has joined us. If you want a better example of competence, I will talk about the NBN. The member for Wentworth will deliver the NBN $29 billion cheaper than Labor would have, and our approach will deliver $16 billion more in economic benefits. As an ex-publican—and I can tell you that I have a link to the member for Wentworth that goes into the pub field as his father was a hotel broker—I can tell you how to make a lot of money out of beer coasters. It is by putting drinks on the back of them, not by designing $70 billion and $80 billion worth of capital investment.

We have a basic structural deficit. Here it is in a nutshell. We can do two things about it. We can tackle it or we can put our heads in the sand. Those sitting opposite continue to have their heads in the sand. There are $5½ billion worth of savings that they proposed that they should get out of the way and get through; otherwise, the future of our kids and the future of this great country will be placed in great jeopardy.

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