Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the last decade, under the former Liberal-National government, Australia suffered. It was a government that simply did not take the action needed to deal with the cost of living. Even as they saw the issues year after year and budget after budget, they left Australian households to fend for their own against some enormous structural problems within our economy. Not once did they actually consider dealing with the long-term cost-of-living issues. It was always the quick fix for them—or even, sometimes, no fix.

Australians across the country and in my electorate of Bennelong have had to pay for the consequences of the coalition's inaction. People in Bennelong and across the country live in a truly cooked housing market, inspired by the coalition's lack of attention to supply. Their wages were stagnant because of the lack of action and the design of the former government's policy. Child care rose by almost 50 per cent under their watch, and their lack of clarity and vision on energy policy has left our national energy market a mess, one that, like all other areas, this government has spent the last 18 months trying to clean up.

These cost-of-living pressures are not one-offs. None of them were sudden. These were generational problems amplified by years of failure by those opposite. But what I find extraordinary is that, when government relief and solutions that have been factually proven to limit and sometimes reduce inflation are proposed, those opposite have the audacity to argue that there is no plan or that there has been no relief for Australians.

The absurdity of this motion and of this opposition is that they come here into this place and say that there is no plan, when they are actively opposing policy and legislation that proves that there is a plan.

They complain about energy prices when they voted down energy price relief. They say that healthcare costs are going up whilst they oppose elements of our cheaper medicines plan. And they blame migrants for our housing crisis when they did nothing for 10 years on housing supply and then they voted against policy which would increase housing supply.

This government understands that household budgets are tight and that the impacts of cost-of-living pressures and inflation are being felt around the country. That's why we just won't sit on our hands while Australians are struggling, and that's why we are out in our electorates and in this place every single day working to address inflation and cost-of-living challenges.

I, for one, know that there is more to do in this space. Our plan to date exists—it's real—and it involves energy bill relief, cheaper child care, increased Medicare bulk-billing rates, reduced medicine costs, boosted income support payments, enhanced rental assistance, fee-free TAFE and training, increased affordable housing, expanded paid parental leave and real efforts to stimulate wage growth. And we're doing this all at the same time as we have delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years, which is putting downward pressure on inflation.

We know that this plan is working because the facts show it is. ABS data indicates that without our cost-of-living policies CPI would have been approximately half a percentage point higher throughout this year. In this September quarter alone, we saw that electricity prices increased by 4.2 per cent. Without the government's intervention, they would have surged by 18.6 per cent. Childcare costs have decreased by 13.2 per cent as a result of our policy we took to the election. Without these adjustments costs would have increased by 6.7 per cent. Rents increased by 2.2 per cent, but because of our rental assistance—the highest increase in 30 years—this would have been 2.5 per cent.

I want to also acknowledge that sometimes these programs are hard to understand and are hard to apply for, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse communities like mine. That's why I'm one of many MPs that's actually doing something about it. On 11 December I'll be hosting a cost-of-living help hub in Eastwood, where I'll be bringing together government and non-government services like Services Australia, Centrelink, Service NSW, CCA New South Wales and the Energy and Water Ombudsman so that people in Bennelong can talk to people and access the support that is available to them. I will also be providing services to translate into Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean for people who need it. Providing cost-of-living support isn't just about good policy—it's about making sure people get access to it, and that's what this government is doing.

Debate adjourned.

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