Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a joy it is to be here speaking on this MPI, following my good friend the member for Hawke, although I can't help but take up some of his issues. I think there's a certain joy to this. Let's start with him criticising the shadow Treasurer for being across details. I'm old enough to remember when Mr Albanese stumbled on the cash rate. What was that—day one or day two of the campaign? I can remember when he had to ask the Treasurer what the fuel excise rate was. That was a slightly embarrassing one on details. I also think the point on wages is a tough one. I'll come back to this, but when real wages are falling, and falling very hard, I find that a very difficult position to take.

I also want to raise this, because I think this is important: watch just how quickly Labor are running away from Qantas. They were very happy to stand close to Qantas when they wanted their support during the Voice campaign, and very happy to support them during the issue on the slot allocations in Sydney. Now they want to run away from Qantas. I'm sorry; I'm going to call those things out as they're raised.

Australians are in to for a very tough Christmas because, as this MPI very clearly points out, the kinds of living standards that we are experiencing in Australia are being felt right across the board. People are having to make some very tough choices. For some, it's: do they take a holiday this year? For some, it's: do they get that extra gift? For some, it's: what food are they able to put on the table? Sadly, this situation doesn't get better on the other side of Christmas. Things are not looking good, whether it be fuel, groceries, mortgages, rent, electricity or gas. All of these things, unfortunately, look like they're going to continue to go up. We had the RBA governor taking the extraordinary position, just last week, that inflation looks more likely now to remain 'higher for longer'. Things are getting worse. For those backbenchers here today, I think I can offer you a little vision into the future, because there's going to be a question asked at the next election: are you better off today than you were when Labor came to government? And I think that's going to hurt.

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