Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Getting lectured by the member for Petrie on being out of touch, after that member went around the country telling everybody to have a positive spin on homelessness, is about as much irony and hypocrisy as I can handle.

Those opposite are getting up in arms about the cost of living for Australians, and Australians are doing it tough. We on this side of the House understand that Australians are doing it tough. That is why the very first thing that we did when coming into government was to try to lift the wages, especially for some of the lowest-paid workers in our country. After 10 years of sitting and watching those opposite govern this country, 10 years of listening to people like the member for Petrie coming into this place with all bluster and without any substance whatsoever, we have to ask ourselves: can we name one single policy—one single thing—that those opposite did to lift the wages of Australian workers? Not one. Not one measure. Not one legislative instrument. Not one bill. Not even one MPI came into this place, while they were on the Treasury benches, that was designed to lift the wages of working Australians. The exact opposite approach was taken. The minister for finance, after having a cigar in the courtyard out the front, came in and said, publicly, all of the quiet bits out loud. He said that low wages were a deliberate design feature of the economy under those opposite.

So we will be not be taking lectures by those opposite, who have over 10 years built an economy on low wages and wage suppression. We have tried to dismantle that. There is a lot of work to be done, but we take our responsibilities to the working people of this country extremely seriously. With the high inflationary environment that current households face, we are trying to implement policies that will not extend the high inflationary environment but provide cost-of-living relief for families who are doing it tough. It takes a particularly twisted type of logic for those opposite to come in here and complain about the cost-of-living pressures—especially around energy prices—when they voted against a measure that would not only cap gas and coal prices but also offer a $1.5 billion package that would go directly into reducing energy bills for Australians. How much bluster do you have to be filled with to have the arrogance to come into this place and say, 'We think that energy prices should be lower, but any time we have an opportunity to contribute to that, we're just going to excuse ourselves and oppose everything that this government does, because we think that's in our political interest'? That's what they have been doing.

It's not just that. Think about housing. The cost of housing is astronomical. It has never been harder to buy a home than it is right now. I was speaking about this last term under the previous government, yet those opposite, with the same arrogance, come into this place and try to lecture the parliament about the cost of living. Yet with the very opportunity they have to try and increase supply and do something meaningful for the first time in 10 years, especially for social housing properties—something the federal government completely didn't do while they were in government—they excuse themselves and just blame us because that is what they believe is in their political interests. It is nonsense. It is absolute nonsense. For those opposite and people like the member for Petrie to come into this place with all of that bluster and rudeness that he displayed, without doing one single thing—not one thing—to lift the living standards, the welfare and the wages of Australian workers shows exactly how empty and hypocritical those opposite are, because they are not willing to do things or to stand by the Australian people. They are willing to come into this place and throw around political slogans that they think are in their political interests. I have news for them. Australians saw through the emptiness. They saw through the nastiness. They saw through the incompetence and the attitudes of those opposite and they said, 'Do you know what? We can do better.'

Politics can be better. We don't expect everything to be fixed all at once. But we at least want people to have a go. That is why we are trying to reduce the cost of child care and we are. That is why we are trying to lift the wages of Australian workers and we are. That is why we are trying to lower energy bills for Australians and that is what we're doing. We are serious about helping Australians. All those opposite have are bluster and political nonsense, and Australians can see through it.

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