Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Hansard source

For three years, the effects of the COVID pandemic have changed our lives, challenged our livelihoods and taken an unspeakable toll on all our loved ones and families. Today we still live through these challenging times. They're far from over, and what most Australians continue to feel is pain. The challenges haven't simply snuck up on us. They haven't jumped out in the dark overnight. Hopefully, one thing that all politicians in this nation and in this place can agree on is that we continue to face significant obstacles preventing us from resuming our treasured way of life.

In the lead-up to the May election, it was very clear to me that the most significant challenge in my electorate would be felt very long after the election was over, and that was, of course, the cost of living. Without a doubt, the cost of living for families and businesses is the No. 1 grassroots issue that is being talked about, and electors ring me every day in order to discuss it. It's what they talk about in normal conversation. It's what they talk about in the crib rooms right across the electorate of Braddon, and I'm very sure that, in that way, Braddon is very similar to other rural and regional electorates right across the nation.

Whoever won government during that election knew that managing the impact of the rising cost of living was their major and immediate challenge. When I enter the Albanese government's address, issues and answers to the cost of living crisis into any search engine, all I get is a lot of data from prior to the election. But since the election it has been radio silence. Since the election there has been very little. Alarmingly, if I search the government's pledge to cut power bills by $275, which would be a normal thing to search for, it seems that all indications are that the government is now backtracking. It is crab-walking away from this important responsibility. Instead, the measurable promise of cutting power bills by $275 by 2025 seems to have been replaced by a general statement that the government has a policy of doing 'what they can' to assist cost of living pressures—what they can.

I come from an electorate of real people, practical people—small business owners, sole traders, partnerships—people who work hard every day. They get up at four o'clock in the morning to milk the cows. They work all night to get the crops in ahead of the rain. They've taken a risk. They've borrowed money. They've employed people every day in their business. These are the people who don't discuss where the next wind farm's going or what pronoun they're going to use today. Today they're talking about how they're going to pay their power bill, which is increasing; how they're going to find that extra money; what they're going to cut out of the grocery bill in order to meet the rising costs of living and the rising interest rate; how they're going to put clothes on the backs of their kids as they go into their winter uniform; and how their little boy is going to get his new shoes so that he can go to school. These are the questions that burn in the minds of my electorate. These are the questions that they raise with me every day.

Obviously, when they raise these questions, they expect a response back. They've learnt that over the term that I have been their representative. When I give them an undertaking to get back to them, that's exactly what I do: I get back to them. I'm as good as my word, and I put it to this government that it needs to do the same. Take a leaf out of that book. If you promise the Australian people a reduction of $275 off their power bill, that is exactly what you should do, or you should explain why you're not going to do it rather than crab-walking and backing away into a tiny corner. Otherwise, rather than calling the government full of policy, electorates like mine will call the government something else: they will assume that you are full of—empty promises. The creation of 604,000 jobs, with five out of six of those new jobs being created in the regions, is a mammoth task, and we will wait and see whether this is just going to be another empty promise that will just continue to fail—

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