Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, you may well ask, 'What's up?' Well, I'll tell you what's up. Fuel is up, rent is up, the cost of housing is up, electricity is up, inflation is up, the cash rate is up—for those of us who actually know what the cash rate is. There are a couple around who might have no idea, I'm sure. And all of these things are costing the Australian people money. They are costing the Australian people more than they paid before, and this is an absolute disgrace. They cannot afford to pay more—they simply cannot.

We've heard today about painting a picture. I'd like to paint a picture, because I actually think they've got a plan, and that is to soften up the Australian people for more cuts—cuts to the budget, cuts that hurt them, cuts that hurt age pensioners, cuts that hurt the people that I represent. I will paint this picture. The Treasurer has got his Rocky hood on and he's gone into the abattoir for the Treasury. He's got the carcass there in front of him. I'm not sure who's playing brother-in-law Paulie. It might be the member for Whitlam, but the PowerPoint presentation he puts on will help him a lot, I'm absolutely certain. He's there, gloves on, fairy tapped from the left, fairy tapped from the right. It doesn't do anything at all. We can see the Treasurer, gloves off, moisturiser on, and he'll go for the knives. The intention of this mob is to cut the budget.

The Treasurer and the Prime Minister, today, this week, last week, next week, are softening up the Australian people to cut the budget, and those cuts will hurt them. The best thing the government can do is keep the tax cuts that we legislated, because that is more money in people's pockets. It is the ability for them to pay their own way. And they need that money. We have seen promises already broken. In question time today, the $275 reduction in the price of electricity—no-one could say it, not one. The question was asked not once, but twice, and was never answered. So what we are seeing from the new government is that they cannot even commit to the things that they promised in the election.

So, to go back to painting the picture: we've got the Treasurer, he's in the abattoir, he's hacking up that carcass of the budget and he's taking away the prime cuts that the Australian people rely on because they have to be able to pay their way. Power prices continue to increase. We will see the RBA, I'm sure, make a decision that is likely to increase the interest rate for every single mortgage holder in this country.

I think the Prime Minister probably needs to take some more advice, because what we've seen—and what we continue to see—every now and again is a little breakout about who the next leader might be. And he's only been here for how long? I can see we've got one of our colleagues in the chair down there. It's been nine weeks, and we've already seen breakouts in the media about changing out the Prime Minister—

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