Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The hypocrisy of those opposite in coming into this chamber and arguing about the cost of living is absolutely breathtaking! While I have regard, as individuals, for some of those opposite, that their collective intelligence propels them to come in here as a group to argue cheap political points on matters that are either irrelevant or entirely misleading in terms of this debate is truly extraordinary.

Despite what they say, Australians are very clear on the Liberal's record on the cost of living and whether they care about it. Indeed, as my colleague the member for Reid rightly pointed out, perhaps they come in here now, dripping with empathy, but they're a decade late. They had a decade in government in which to address these issues and they made an active choice not to. In fact, in many cases, they made active decisions, such as suppressing wage growth, to inflame and expose the Australian economy and the Australian people to the cost-of-living challenges that we now face.

That can be summed up by a very simple number, despite its magnitude: a trillion dollars of debt. The Liberals have left this country with $1 trillion of debt, and there is no economic dividend for it. We don't see the returns—we don't see social or economic returns for it. In fact, what they did with that trillion dollars—that trillion dollars which belongs to the Australian people—was flood it away on various rorts, with car parks, colour-coded spreadsheets and whatnot. They lined the pockets of big business and they invested poorly in projects that, ultimately, didn't stack up because they hadn't put the work into them to determine whether they would. That $1 trillion of debt hangs around their neck, and they hate it. They get very upset whenever we raise it. It has been well covered by a whole range of respected economic and fiscal analysts. One can only draw the conclusion that it affects them at a personal level in a way that many of the social issues that we raise in this place don't.

Ultimately I think we all know that their flaccid masculinity is splintered by the self-propelled myth of their own economic competence, and it doesn't exist. It just doesn't exist. It is an utter lie on their part that they are somehow superior economic managers. History does not bear that out in any sense whatsoever. So they come in here and essentially seek to put themselves forward as having some superior sense of knowledge or belief on these matters when in fact history shows very clearly that their economic credentials are extraordinarily lacking. The sad part about that is that the Australian people are now suffering for that.

We had a wasted decade under that government. They exposed us to international pressures which are now driving cost-of-living issues. That's on top of the rorts that we talked about and the very deliberate design feature of their economy that was zero wages growth. They set us back, and it is now up to our government to try to clean up that mess and to be the mature and responsible government this country needed for the last 10 years and didn't have.

Let's talk about the drivers of inflation. They are critical to why we're facing a cost-of-living challenge. In their most recent advice that the RBA put out, they acknowledge that supply-side inflation issues are a really significant proportion of the inflation and that it is purely driven by international pressures. The war in Europe is putting pressure on supply chains. It's putting pressure on global energy prices. It is having a really significant impact on inflation here in our country.

On the independent RBA, I note that a member opposite got up and sought to carry on about whether the RBA is truly independent. I would urge those opposites to show a little restraint and responsibility when it comes to the long-term belief in our institutions and the independence of the RBA. You are the conservatives of this country, apparently, and you should have respect for those institutions. The independence of the RBA is an underpinning institutional reality that protects our economy and protects the policymaking in that space. Nevertheless, those opposite seek to undermine that to score cheap political points. The RBA have made very clear in their public advice that international pressures— (Time expired)

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