Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've been going to the country shows in my electorate, and cost-of-living issues are very, very important to people in my electorate. That's why this budget is providing enormous assistance in bulk-billing incentives, cheaper child care, electricity bill relief and support for jobseeker increases. But, for those who might be listening, this MPI was brought by the opposition. There are four members opposite. Two of them are on duty, no doubt, so they're here. This is such an important issue that those opposite have three people in the chamber now—three people! Where are they? Where is their frontbench? There's not a single person there except the member for Gippsland, who, by the way, had a great question time. There is one person on duty; none of their frontbenchers are here. They think cost of living is a great issue. The previous speaker, I know he knocked off his predecessor in a pre-selection but it was the wrong legislature. He should have been in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He talked about Victoria, but I hate to tell him: the people of Victoria have re-elected Daniel Andrews again and again. It's just not working.

I would have more respect for those opposite if they had voted for our energy price relief plan, but they didn't. I would have more respect for them if they supported our JobSeeker increase, but they won't. I would have more support and respect for them if they supported our Housing Australia Future Fund, providing 30,000 social and community houses, but they will not do so. I would have more support for them if they had actually supported wage increases in the minimum wage increase case, but they didn't, every single time it came up when they were in power for nine years. It's not what you say; it's what you do. They failed. They forgot what they were doing for the last nine years. There's a political amnesia over there: 'Don't look at our record.' They didn't support minimum wage increases. They didn't support the 15 per cent wage increases for the aged-care sector that we're providing for with the $11 billion in this budget. They didn't support that at all for nine years. They didn't support it at all. What about their energy price policies, their great energy reforms, their 20 failed policies? Remember the National Energy Guarantee, the NEG? Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull didn't last 24 hours. They couldn't settle on a way to deal with issues of price relief, so wholesale prices and retail prices went up and up under them.

If you're coming to this place and talking about cost-of-living relief, how about you vote for it? How about you sport the policies that will address this issue? How about doing something about it when you were in government? Honestly! We got the Leader of the Opposition who wanted to cut $50 billion out of health and also make you pay a $7 guarantee every time you went to the doctor and end bulk-billing. We're trebling the incentive. There are 105,000 people in my electorate and 53 medical practices who will benefit by this. Those opposite did nothing about it. This is a huge cost-of-living relief in my electorate. What about cheaper child care? We have a situation where 8,900 families in my electorate will get cheaper child care from 1 July this year. Those opposite did nothing about it for nine years. You come in here all hyperbole, all exaggeration and all hypothetical, because those opposite have got no politics. The Leader of the Opposition was talking about some worthy gambling reform in his budget-in-reply speech, but no costings in relation to anything, no policies that will address the cost of living.

Today we had about the 19th MPI. Those opposite don't believe the MPIs are actually worthy of debate—if they believed it, they'd be here. None of their frontbenchers are here except the member for Gippsland, who is on duty. So don't come in here and effectively say to us that this is a big issue when you can't put people in the bleachers. There are not even any backbenchers—there are a couple on duty over there. It's simply not good enough to claim that the cost of living is important to you and important to your constituents. We know these issues are important to your constituents, but it isn't to those members. I hope everyone who is listening, in seats all around the country and have a look where their MP is, because they're not in the chamber debating this at the moment. Not at all.

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