Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I want to put some context into this debate, for all those who are listening. The Governor-General's opening speech to the parliament is basically the Governor-General delivering a message from the Prime Minister, from the government, about what its priorities are for the coming term of government. It's an important speech in outlining what the government hopes to achieve.

I'd like to refer to the Governor-General's speech just to give a sense of where we're at. We're not quite 12 months since the last election, but we're already starting to see some trends and developments—where the government has got some things right and where the government has gone completely off track and is getting a lot of things wrong. My deep, deep concern is that if it continues down the track that it is things are going to get a lot worse, sadly, for Australians, rather than a lot better.

In the opening of the Governor-General's speech, he said the government knows this country faces serious and pressing challenges. The first one mentioned was the rising cost of living. What you would have hoped for was that, having identified this as the No. 1 priority, the government would have been doing everything it can to make sure that it was putting downward pressure on these rising costs of living. Yet, sadly, we're seeing the exact opposite. If you look at interest rates, the Reserve Bank has met eight times since May, since the change of government, and eight times it has raised interest rates.

The sad reality is that interest rates are always higher under a Labor government. The facts prove that. We have the facts, and we can demonstrate the facts showing that under Labor interest rates are always higher. There is a very simple reason: Labor spend more, you pay more. If governments don't spend wisely, spend productively and spend in a way that is in the interests of the nation for the longer term, then it puts upward pressure on interest rates. That is, sadly, what we are seeing. We know you will always pay more under Labor, and the sad reality is that interest rates, as a result, will always be higher under Labor. That's because Labor like to spend more. It's worth remembering: the more they spend, the more you pay. That is one of the big areas of concern already that we're seeing from the government and the way they are going about things. That was the first thing that was identified in the Governor-General's reply speech: the rising costs of living. When it comes to interest rates, sadly, we're not heading in the right direction.

The other thing that is really impacting on people's cost of living is energy bills. Once again, we're seeing rather poor action from the government, which is actually making the situation worse rather than better. I'm going to go to a proof point. This is a proof point that I raised in the parliament in question time in a question to the Prime Minister himself. I raised the example of a constituent of mine, Alan Dennett. He's 80 years of age, and he lives at home with his wife and their disabled son. They received their latest energy bill in the mail. It said, 'Your gas bill will increase by approximately $1,300 over the next 12 months.' Now, for Mr Dennett, this is an enormous increase in his gas bill for him and his family. The Prime Minister needs to explain to Mr Dennett and to many other people right across the nation why he told him and others that their power bill would go down by $275. Now, he said this before the election. 'Your power bill will go down by $275.' He said it on 97 occasions. One of the things that we have been trying to do is to get the Prime Minister to even mention $275 since the election. He was quite happy to before the election—on 97 occasions, he mentioned $275. After the election, he hasn't mentioned it once.

This is not being up-front with the Australian people. This is hiding from the Australian people. If you cannot honour that commitment, Prime Minister, then you should come clean with the Australian people and tell them. You talk about reasons and excuses as to why now you can't deliver that, but why won't you come out and just say, 'On 97 occasions before the last election, I mentioned that your power bill would go down by $275. I was wrong. I can't deliver that. I was shouldn't have said it. I was wrong.' Now, that would be, I think, something that the Australian people would appreciate. They would. They would say, 'Okay, you're being up-front with us.' Instead, he's just playing tricky games and won't come clean, saying, 'Oh, it's this and that and this and that, and that's why,' but he won't actually come out and say: 'We said $275 97 times before the last election. We might have been just gilding the lily a bit. We can't deliver on that. We got it wrong. As a matter of fact, what's happening is the complete opposite.' In Mr Dennett's case, it's not a $275 reduction; for his family it's a nearly $1,400 increase. I can understand why there is growing concern, not only in my communities but right across the nation, about what is happening with energy. One thing was said before the election, and we're seeing something completely opposite after the election.

And it's not just when it comes to interest rates. It's not just when it comes to electricity bills. We're also seeing it when families go to the supermarket to shop. The increase in what they're paying at the checkout continues to rise. The sad reality is that most Australians now are just wondering: 'Well, what is the government's plan to deal with inflation? What is the government's plan to deal with these cost increases?' Now, the government said before the election that it was going to address real wages. They said that they were going to make sure that real wages continued to increase. The sad reality is that real wages are going backwards and they have continued to go backwards since the May election. This is another area where, rather than being tricky and saying that wages are increasing, the government needs to come clean and say real wages—that is, wages adjusted for inflation—are going backwards. At least then the Australian people would know the reality of what they're facing.

They're facing rising cost-of-living pressures when it comes to interest rates, when it comes to energy bills and when it comes to what they're paying at the supermarket, and the government isn't able to address it. The government doesn't have a plan to address it. If the government came clean on that, I think the Australian people would at least be saying the government's being up-front with them. But we're not seeing that.

And it's not just your energy bills. It's not just interest rates. It's not just what you're paying at the supermarket. It's also what's happening with regard to insurance, and it's also what's happening with regard to rents, which are also all going up. So the sad reality is that, right across the board, people are paying more. That's why, sadly, the fact of the matter is that you'll always pay more under Labor. It's worth noting, and I think the Australian people are starting to understand this: Labor spend more, and you pay more. You've got to remember that, when they're out there promising the world and spending more, what they're really doing is making sure that you will pay more.

The second thing that was mentioned as a key priority in the Governor-General's opening speech was that there would be fixed low wages growth. As I've mentioned before, what's actually happened when it comes to real wages—your wages adjusted for the CPI, for inflation—is that they're going backwards. So the government hasn't been able to address this, and the facts demonstrate it. That is why Australians are feeling poorer. The sad reality is that when you speak to many people in my communities and right across Australia and ask them, 'Are you feeling better off now than in May last year?' most of them are saying: 'No, I'm not. I'm actually feeling poorer.'

The third thing that they said they would be addressing is climate change. We've seen the government building on the track record of the coalition but building on that track record in only one regard. We were able to bring emissions down but keep energy prices low. What we're seeing from the government is that they are following our lead in reducing emissions but, sadly, not doing it by keeping energy prices low. That is the thing that they have to get right, because if they don't then, sure, emissions are going to continue to go down but we're going to see either our major manufacturers moving offshore or actually shutting down. That is in no-one's interest.

The real test for the government when it comes to climate change is to reduce emissions while ensuring that all our key industries can remain open and continue to thrive. That is particularly important for those that are energy intensive and exposed to overseas competition, because if you don't get that right then all it will lead to is our productive manufacturers moving overseas or else being forced to shut, because competition from overseas will be so strong. That is in no-one's interest.

In dealing with the tensions of our region and the uncertainty in our world, the government has, I must say, done better than it has anywhere else. That's because they've followed, in a bipartisan way, the approach that the previous government took, and that was to understand the uncertainty of the times that we are dealing with and to make sure that we continue to address that. Under our government, we made sure that defence spending increased and continued to increase and that we were going to have the ability to defend ourselves and defend ourselves strongly. The government is building on that approach. When it comes to foreign policy, the government has continued our priority of making sure we continue our engagement with the region and that critical engagement in the Pacific, and also that we continue to build and support our key alliances, in particular with the US and the UK.

We're about to see how important AUKUS will be to our future over the coming months, because all the work that was done by the previous government in putting AUKUS together—and former prime minister Scott Morrison deserves huge credit here—is about to bear fruit. We're about to hear all about that over the coming months. The only thing that I would point to where I think the government could have done a better job is actually in the trade portfolio. We're still waiting for the UK free trade agreement to come into force. That has taken far too long and shows that the government hasn't been active enough in making sure that that passes through the UK parliament and goes into force. They've also sat on their heels a bit when it's come to the free trade agreement with India. Obviously we have that in force now. It was an incredibly important bit of work. But why haven't we had a massive trade delegation already in India? Making sure we're building on that I think is one area where the government has left a little bit wanting.

The other thing which is mentioned in this reply speech—and I see I'm going to run out of time, which is a great shame, because there's a lot more I could go through—is around the area of infrastructure. The sad reality is that in this speech the government hasn't identified anything when it comes to the regions and, in particular, infrastructure. What we've seen instead is, once again, Labor being true to form and completely ignoring our regions. I had to raise in parliament this week how a constituent who I called told me about his ambulance ride from Portland to Hamilton along the Henty Highway. He had broken ribs and a punctured lung, and along the road he had to be sedated because it was such a rough ambulance ride. The sad thing is that the government, in its October budget, cut $40 million from that road and the Princes Highway in an act of political—I would use the word but I won't, because it's unparliamentary, but it starts with a 'B'—the like of which I haven't seen. They cut $40 million from our roads when I have asked the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria to come down and drive on them to see how poor they are, because if they drove on them, they would have no excuse to have done what they've done by cutting that $40 million. I will hold them to account for that, and I know every state MP in my local area will also be making sure that the government is held to account for ripping that $40 million out of our road funding.

We also have seen that projects like the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club and our Local Roads Package, which was extensive, won't be funded. The Elliminyt Recreation Reserve and the Port Fairy Community Sports Hub won't be upgraded. As a matter of fact, very important things like the Portland community sporting complex won't be upgraded. As a matter of fact, all we've seen is the government taking money from our regional projects—important local community projects—and putting nothing towards them. If I have one message out of this speech today, it is to the Albanese government. That is: please, you always do it, but make this government a little different. Actually get in behind and support regional communities to grow and develop. Don't just look after the inner city. Make sure that you also understand that Australia exists outside of our capital cities, because that is the biggest flaw that we always see from Labor governments. They do not understand how important regional and rural Australia is and how important investing in regional and rural Australia is.

In concluding, I thank all my hardworking staff both from when I was previously a minister and now for the wonderful work they do for me. I have one of the most wonderful staff members in here with me today. I thank all those supporters who helped me throughout the last election campaign. We had over 800 volunteers help and support my re-election in Wannon. To all of you—and I said it in the lunch we did afterwards—I say a very, very big thankyou. We have to hold this government to account, and that is what I will be doing.

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