Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

Before I start I want to acknowledge the profound words of the Leader of the Opposition in response to the horrifying news we have received in the last 24 hours: the child abuse case that is now moving forward in terms of its investigation. Every one of us in this House—it doesn't matter which side we sit on—have families. Our children are the most precious thing to us. Our grandchildren are the most precious thing to us. To hear this news is confounding, frankly. I want to honour the work of the Leader of the Opposition in his previous roles. I think together, in a bipartisan way, we want to see this situation rectified.

This Albanese Labor government talks about all the measures they're taking to ease the cost-of-living crisis which is crippling Australian families. My focus is on the one-third of Australian families who happen to live in regional Australia, who always get the short end of the stick when Labor is in power—the forgotten Australians. Regional families are struggling to make ends meet. They can't afford to put food on the table. Their energy bills are exploding out of control. And in my electorate of Malley people can't work, because there is no child care available.

The Prime Minister's contempt for Australian families who are doing it tough was on full display for all to see yesterday. When I asked him in question time what he could do for my constituent Brendan Reinheimer, a father of a young family whose electricity bill just went up by $970, what was his answer? The Prime Minister blamed the coalition for voting against his energy relief bill in the Senate.

I would remind the House that the measure actually passed into legislation, but it actually hasn't made a dent of difference to Brendan's electricity bill; it has still gone up by $970. I suppose the Prime Minister would have the same contempt for Steve Cross and his family of five, who have seen their electricity bill rise by a whopping $1,280. His promise of $275 relief on energy bills sounds like a bad joke, frankly, to the struggling families who are living in my electorate.

The Labor government continues to grandstand day after day while families in regional Australia literally cannot afford to keep the lights on. It is obscene. As the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister make clear, the Labour government's $5.4 billion childcare subsidy has been exposed as poor policy, as it is overlaid by skyrocketing fees and no relief for those who live in regional towns, especially in my electorate of Mallee, where there is no child care. Goodstart Early Learning operate four centres across Mallee and have increased their fees by nearly eight per cent, which they argue funds increased wages and increased operating costs. Nationwide, fees are rising in some cases by more than 15 per cent, piling pressure on Australians during the Labor government's cost-of-living crisis. Families across Mallee have told me of their inability to access child care, which renders any taxpayer funded subsidy 100 per cent useless. The dire situation of childcare deserts in Mallee has a flow-on effect for the workforce, which is experiencing severe shortages in sectors such as health, aged care and education. Labor's one-size-fits-all, policy-on-the-run approach has failed Mallee mums and dads.

Billions of dollars in subsidies makes for a flashy Labor headline, but where was the mechanism to prevent that subsidy being eaten up by higher fees? And what is their answer to regional towns with no child care at all? A subsidy is about as useful as a headless hammer if there are no childcare facilities and no workforce in the first place. How are families in Mallee who can't work due to lack of child care going to pay for the Prime Minister's renewable bonanza? What is Labor's answer to these skyrocketing energy prices that are sending families over the financial cliff? They'll just keep ramming through their ideological agenda to reach 82 per cent renewables by 2030 whatever the cost to families and whatever the cost to regional communities. They must do better.

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