Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the matter of public importance brought by my colleague the member for Hume today, and I thank him for bringing this matter to the House. The Prime Minister's claimed that Australians have had a pretty good 10 months, but I'm yet to have any Australian, besides maybe some of those that sit opposite us, saying to me that they have had a pretty good 10 months. Nobody in my electorate of Hughes has come to me to say, 'I've had a really good 10 months', or even a pretty good 10 months. Instead, I'm hearing that on average in my electorate they are now paying almost $2,000 a month more on mortgages—and 30 per cent of my electorate still have a mortgage.

What impact does this have on small businesses in my electorate and small businesses throughout Australia? Small businesses in my electorate are saying many things. Cafe owners will say: 'People used to come in and buy two cups of coffee. Now they're cutting down to one.' A local beautician in Sutherland only two weeks ago said to me: 'Discretionary spend is down. People are no longer coming in and getting the same amount of services that they used to get.' Cafe owners again have said: 'We used to have the Tuesday lunch crowd that used to come in. Now they're coming in and having coffees instead.' That is having a direct impact on small businesses, which has a flow-on impact on employment and on my electorate of Hughes. I ask that the Prime Minister explain which Australians he was referring to when he said Australians have had a pretty good 10 months. He's refused to answer questions this week about it. I asked the Prime Minister a question about the closure of what used to be a local institution in the Sutherland shire. This was an Italian restaurant, Caruso's. They closed their doors at the beginning of March and said they were closing their doors because of the escalating costs of power and the other living costs that have increased so much over the last 10 months. They'd been in business for 17 years, and now they've closed their doors and people have lost their jobs.

Families, over the past 10 months, have had nine consecutive rate rises under this government. I don't know how it can be said that Australians have had a pretty good 10 months. It just does not make sense. Older Australians having to choose between heating and eating would not agree with the Prime Minister's assertion that Australians have had a pretty good 10 months. Parents that are having to make tough choices about their budgets wouldn't say it's been a pretty good 10 months. And we just keep saying it.

I will draw some direct quotes from the Prime Minister. Indeed, at the Labor launch on 1 May last year he said:

… as your Prime Minister—I won't run from responsibility. I won't treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else. I will show up, I will step up, I will bring people together.

What a beautiful statement. Ten months down the track that has not occurred.

On 11 April last year on ABC News Breakfast, he said, 'I will take responsibility. I'll show leadership. I'll deal with the challenges. And there are also opportunities that we can seize.' At a Sydney press conference on 10 April last year he said:

I think that Australians want a government that does its job, that doesn't always blame someone else, that accepts responsibility.

So why do we hear now that the increase in power prices is because of the war in Ukraine, for example? This Prime Minister, this government, continue to blame somebody else, even a war overseas, for problems within Australia that they simply cannot fix, that they do not have answers for. Under this government and under Labor governments forever Australian families, Australian businesses, Australians always pay more under Labor.

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