Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a government that really likes to pretend that it's still in opposition. More than a year into the job now, the government has failed Australian families and has certainly failed our small businesses. They still refuse to admit or recognise their failures and the struggle that most families are now confronting. Just now in question time they were constantly talking about the former government, rather than what they are doing for this country.

This Albanese government has no comprehensive economic plan, no plan to reduce inflation, no plan to reduce pressure on interest rates and no plan to reverse the increasing cost of living. What this government has offered, though, is handouts—big wads of cash in the form of cost-of-living bandaids that might stem the bleeding today but do absolutely nothing for tomorrow. There was nothing in their last budget that rewarded effort, nothing that encouraged business owners to create opportunities and employment for others, and nothing that would help Australia's jobseekers into the 400,000 available jobs ready around the country today.

This government would have you believe it did nothing to add to inflationary pressures, but, in fact, its duty is to do something to depress inflationary pressures. That is the job. Its mismanagement has been named by the economic experts and commentariat. Indeed, in May this year Anthony Walker, director of the independent ratings agency S&P, warned that handouts in the most recent budget 'may add to inflationary pressures'. We've also heard from former RBA governor Glenn Stevens, who has conceded that the Albanese government's budget would have an expansionary effect. It's easier to be blunt about the situation when you don't have the sword of Damocles hanging over your head.

This government has clearly lost control, and Australian families and businesses are paying the price for its ineptitude. Australian families—Flinders families—are doing it tough. Food costs more. Petrol costs more. Energy costs more. Rents cost more. Building materials cost more. Houses and mortgages cost more. As we heard in question time, families with an average mortgage have to come up with an additional $22,000 a year. That's $22,000 a year after tax. I don't know how they do it. The goal posts are constantly moving for those who seek the opportunities and the way of life that Australia has historically offered.

RBA governor Philip Lowe recently recommended that we need more people on average to live in each dwelling and said that higher prices do that. The RBA has made it very clear that there is more pain in the pipeline. The NAB expects more rate rises in July and August, and Westpac also expects more to come. In the RBA board minutes released today, the bank made it very clear that there is significant concern for the unstable and growing pressures on households. Household consumption growth has slowed, or, to put it simply, people have stopped spending money, a fact that any small business in my electorate of Flinders will tell you. To make ends meet, many Australians are now taking on extra jobs. Last week's labour accounts data shows that the number of Australians having to take on multiple jobs has increased by more than 10 per cent in the last 12 months.

A few weeks ago, I hosted a tourism and hospitality round table in my electorate with businesses across food and beverage, logistics, hotels and accommodation, and tourism events. We discussed the recent IR law changes, including permission for pattern bargaining, which came into effect earlier this month. I was concerned when I heard from lots of small businesses in my electorate that they couldn't manage the economic impact of these changes, let alone the increases in minimum and award wages, at such a challenging time. This builds on the huge increase in energy costs which small businesses are already facing. The running of a business will become incrementally more expensive. In Victoria the default price for gas for homes and small businesses will be going up by about 30 per cent by midyear. How will vibrant businesses which are internationally competitive, like Chief's Son, the Original Spirit Co in Somerville or the beautiful Bass & Flinders in Dromana, or even bigger businesses like Sealite, which produces marine and aviation navigation tools, manage their costs when the bill for gas, which is absolutely vital to their businesses, goes up by 30 per cent overnight?

In a few days we will reach the 14-month anniversary of the Prime Minister's promise to stand up and take responsibility. On 1 May last year, Anthony Albanese said:

And—as your Prime Minister—I won't run from responsibility.

I won't treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else.

He actually said that at the ALP campaign launch last year on 1 May last year. And yet Labor is failing to fight inflation, failing to boost productivity, failing to stoke and support economic growth, failing to house a growing population, failing to support small business when they need support the most. We need a government that has a vision of what Australia can be and should be, and a comprehensive economic plan to get us there.

See this speech in context