Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

LEMAN () (): I thank the member for Deakin for raising this matter of public importance. It is a pity that he is walking out of the chamber, as always, and not bothering to listen to things here. If he did more listening and less interjecting, he might actually understand the work that we are doing.

We care deeply about the impacts on people of rising mortgages, power bills and, in fact, all the increased costs of living that we are so mindful of. Unlike the opposition, we are doing something to address these issues. I listened to the member for Deakin and, sadly, his rhetoric was as empty as the policies he put forward when he was housing minister, when the best we got was money for wealthy people to do renovations. It might not have been him, but his government was certainly keen to say that, if you needed to buy a home, you should get a better job or just be born into the right family.

There are issues that we have inherited. The difference is we accept that. We knew coming into government that we were going to have to clean up a mess. There are probably a few people in this chamber who know I enjoy gardening. That's not to say I do very much of it these days. But when I think about what is involved in creating and nurturing a beautiful garden I see parallels with the work you have to do to nurture the economy so that people and businesses thrive. I also see parallels with what happens if you neglect it. The impact doesn't happen immediately. Your garden still grows for a while. The flowers still bloom. But there are signs of distress, and you do well to pay attention to those. But at some point, if you ignore those, without the work that is needed in the garden you find yourself looking at a mess—overgrown grass, weeds as tall as your rose bushes and fruit trees in dire need of TLC.

How does that help describe where we find ourselves today on this side of the parliament? For a start, as much as those opposite would like to pretend that the challenges we face have only occurred in the last 10 months, the facts just don't back that up. In 2019, well before COVID and, in my community, bushfires and floods, the cost of living was biting. One of the reasons was wage stagnation. Wages simply have not moved. As we found out, that was because those opposite didn't want wages to go up. In March 2019, the then federal finance minister Mathias Cormann said low wage growth was a 'deliberate design feature' of their economic architecture. So there was deliberate neglect taking place. There were early signs, and they were completely ignored by those opposite. They ignored the pleas of workers, who said, 'Things are tough.' They ignored the issues we raised when we said things were biting for people.

Then, of course neglect led to even worse situations, with inflation biting. That is obviously the defining challenge of 2023. But let's remember the largest jump in inflation. We just had the member for Deakin quoting a bunch of inflation figures. The largest jump in inflation in any quarter this century occurred in the March quarter of not 2023 but 2022. It was a 2.1 per cent leap. By the way, that was before we took office. That was the worst period for inflation, and interest rates started to rise following that. So you can see the signs of distress were there. They weren't hiding in the soil. They had broken out and were in plain sight.

When your garden gets into a state, there are a few things you need to do. You need to get some quick control, and weeding is one thing that will absolutely make a difference. But you can't stop there, because that's not addressing the real issues. You need to mulch so that the weeds don't come back as fast as you pull them out. Then you need to nurture that garden. You won't see the results immediately. I know the National Party will understand that nurturing is really important. It takes time, whether it is roses or wheat that you are growing. Without that, it's never going to thrive. That's the same sort of thinking we have applied to all the issues we have been left with, whether it's power bills, inflation or housing. We don't hide from it. We are proud that we are willing to get out there and do the work.

Let's start with energy. I'm not sure whether the member for Deakin actually referred to this issue in his MPI ramblings—that is a good way to describe it—but let's talk about power bills. Jennifer Westacott, a highly respected businesswoman, said:

… we have not done the work that we should have done for the last decade … we've really made a mess of energy policy.

The chairman of Newcrest, Peter Tomsett, says:

If you don't have policy for long enough—

which has been our situation—

you wind up with a situation where intervention is required. This need not have happened had the right energy policy been put in place. What we're seeing is a symptom.

And, indeed, there were 22 policies, and they didn't land one of them. They left Australia with a national energy grid built for the last century, so we are doing the work.

We know there is long-term work to do, but we also know that people need help quickly. That's why we worked so closely and quickly with the states and territories on getting cost-of-living support that would not drive greater inflation. That was really well thought through in collaboration with the states. Our aim for those deals with the states, working individually with each state, is that we are really looking forward to being able to see those flow through to people in the coming weeks and months. It does take time to do that work.

By the way—and I feel we've said it a lot here—we know that Russia's invasion of Ukraine saw energy costs skyrocket. We understand how challenging that is for small businesses and big businesses. We made key decisions last year. Do you remember when we brought the government back, and those opposite voted against any price relief for people?

We know that what we've done has made a difference. AGL, in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange just last month, said:

Notably, the impact of government intervention contributed to a sharp decline in forward electricity prices …

So we know that what we're doing is working. Steven Kennedy from Treasury described it as a package that 'will make a material difference to reducing cost-of-living pressures'.

So in energy we have bitten the bullet. We are doing the longer-term work getting clean energy, which is the cheapest form of energy you can have. The passage of our safeguard mechanism means that we will start to see significant and serious change. Our incentives to get people to move across to electric vehicles and all those things will make a difference.

Those opposite talk about interest rates. It is so challenging for people who have mortgages to cope with the additional costs they are facing. That is driven by inflation. So what are we doing to tackle inflation? We know those opposite recognise this issue, because in September 2022, May 2022 and April 2022 the member for Hume, the Leader of the Opposition and the former Prime Minister all talked about the pressures of rising costs of living coming not just from the war in Ukraine but the disruptions to supply chains. And of course we are tackling that supply chain issue with the National Reconstruction Fund, which this parliament passed—no thanks to those opposite. Every measure we have put in place has been opposed by those opposite.

In the time I have left, I think it's really is important to touch on the things we've done. We know people's mortgages have gone up, and we also recognise there are things that we can do quite quickly, just like weeding the garden. We can make some quick changes to ease the cost-of-living pressures on people. What are those things? Well, cheaper medicines is one of those things. As we've heard today, we have had the biggest cut in the cost of medicines to people in the entire PBS scheme. That has made millions and millions of dollars difference to people around the country by saving them that money. We also have cheaper child care in less than 100 days for families with children in child care. That is one of those areas where we can make a difference. And guess what? We have—unlike those opposite, who saw the danger signs and chose to ignore them at every single step of the way.

Now, all they do when we put up the solutions is say no. They have said no to our Energy Price Relief Plan. They are saying no to the Housing Australia Future Fund. Guess what? More supply takes pressure off housing prices, which helps people have lower mortgages. They should be ashamed of themselves for coming in here and pretending to care and doing nothing.

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