Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the cost of living keeps going up under the Prime Minister and Treasurer, and since this Government took office:

(a) food and grocery prices are up by 8.2 per cent;

(b) housing prices are up by 10.4 per cent;

(c) insurance is up by 17.3 per cent;

(d) electricity is up by 18.2 per cent;

(e) gas is up by 28 per cent; and

(f) interest rates have increased 12 times;

(2) recognises it has not been easy under the Government since their election in May 2022;

(3) acknowledges that the Government has no plan to address spiralling costs and bring down inflation; and

(4) calls on the Government to deliver real cost of living relief to the Australian people.

As we all know, there's an ever-increasing cost-of-living crisis under the watch of this Prime Minister, this Treasurer, and this Labor government, and this issue is showing no signs of easing. It is now 18 months since the Prime Minister and the Labor government were elected. When Labor came to government, they promised they had all the answers to the cost-of-living crisis. But, as I've said many times in this place, don't listen to what they say; look at what they actually do, because nine times out of 10 they are two completely and utterly different things.

What did those opposite promise? They promised to reduce your electricity bills by $275. Instead, electricity prices have gone up 18 per cent and gas has gone up by 28 per cent. Millions of Australians have just been hit by another interest rate rise, the 12th since this government was elected. Interest rates are now at their highest level since 2011, and rents are experiencing their highest increase since 2009. Australia's inflation is higher than that of almost every major advanced economy. Food and grocery prices are up by 8.2 per cent, housing prices are up by 10.4 per cent, and insurance is up by 17.3 per cent. Inflationary pressures have compounded these increases, with Australians finding that their pay cheques are not going as far as they did a year ago, exactly the opposite of what those opposite, the current Labor government, promised. In addition to that, we've seen productivity collapse, and we are now in a GDP per capita recession.

But do those opposite have a plan? I'd venture to suggest that, no, they don't. Labor's plan to deal with these issues is completely and utterly non-existent. In fact, they have left it up to the Reserve Bank to try and deal with it alone and bring down these inflationary pressures.

But the Reserve Bank has but one tool, and that is interest rates. It places increasing pressure on dealing with this inflationary problem fairly and squarely on the shoulders of mortgage holders and also, by extension, those who are renting because the landlords who have mortgages are putting up their rents in response to interest rate increases.

Local residents in my electorate of Forde consistently rank cost of living as their No. 1 issue, with just under 40 per cent of the residents in my electorate having a mortgage. If they have an average mortgage of some $500,000—or a bit more in many cases—they are now being forced to pay an additional $1,200 per month in interest repayments alone in a climate where real wages for working families have fallen by around five per cent over the last 12 months.

Increasing energy costs are inflating the price of goods and services across the country. That's something those opposites seem to forget—electricity is in everything that we buy right across our economy. So electricity prices going up by 18 per cent feeds directly into the inflationary problem. That is a direct result of deliberate government policy. So, unless those opposites are prepared to change those policies, that problem is not going to go away. It does not matter how much the Reserve Bank increases interest rates by, it's deliberate government policy that is directly impacting the rate of inflation. It is only those opposites that can change it.

Last week, we saw the Minister for Climate Change and Energy make matters worse through a decision to write a blank cheque on behalf of taxpayers to bring more renewables online. If renewables are truly the cheapest source of energy, surely it wouldn't require subsidies to achieve those outcomes? The costs won't be outlined, but you can be sure that it will mean an increased cost in your energy bill, with this cost feeding through to all sectors of the economy, exacerbating our inflationary pressures. This government has no plan to ease the cost-of-living pressure.

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