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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that before the election, the:

(a) Government promised a $275 reduction in people's power bills; and

(b) Prime Minister promised 'cheaper mortgages', and promised that families would be 'better off', yet in just 18 months:

(i) food has gone up more than 9 per cent;

(ii) housing has gone up more than 12 per cent;

(iii) electricity has gone up more than 23 per cent;

(iv) gas has gone up more than 29 per cent;

(v) after 12 interest rate rises, interest rates are at their highest level since 2011, meaning a family with a $750,000 mortgage now needs to pay an extra $24,000 per year; and

(vi) rents are experiencing the highest increase since 2009;

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) this Government's economic and energy policies are making inflation worse with Australia's inflation still higher than almost every major advanced economy; and

(b) higher inflation means higher interest rates which contributes to higher rents; and

(3) recognises that in the past year, household disposable incomes fell by 5 per cent, more than any developed country.

Australians are hurting. Nationally, over the last 18 months, we've seen groceries go up by more than nine per cent and housing go up by more than 12 per cent. For many, electricity has gone through the roof and is now up by over 18 per cent. Insurance costs have risen by 22 per cent, and gas is up by an incredible 27 per cent. Prior to the last election, the Prime Minister promised every Australian that they would have a saving of $275 on their energy bill. Now we see the reality of his promise. It is not worth a cracker—zero—because now we're seeing a situation where many Australians cannot afford to heat or cool their homes. This is just the first of many broken promises from this government when they said people would be better off under their leadership. It just hasn't happened.

With inflation remaining higher than in any other developed country, Australian households are no longer able to keep up. In real terms, net disposable income per person has fallen by 8.6 per cent across the same 18-month period. For an average income earner, this is a decline in take-home pay of just over $8,000 a year. This has translated into disposable incomes falling over the past year more than in any other developed country. More and more Australians are being forced to use what money they have saved just to stay afloat. We heard that in the testimony from the Reserve Bank governor in Friday's committee hearing. She confirmed that people are running down their savings in order to continue to make ends meet—savings that in many cases are there for a rainy day, not to cover everyday costs.

Compounding all of this, households have faced a record 12 interest rate rises since May 2022. Australians with a $750,000 mortgage are now paying an interest bill some $24,000 a year higher than when the Prime Minister said at the election that mortgages would be cheaper under a government he led. That $24,000 of higher interest costs is out of after-tax income and it doesn't take into account the capital repayments on top of that, so many Australian households are not just $24,000 a year worse off; they are far worse off than that. This pain has continued to spread and is now being shared by those who are renters. Renters are not only experiencing the tightest market globally in terms of supply, but they have also been forced to take on higher increases to their weekly rents because of the increase in the interest costs that landlords have had to bear. All of these things feed through to a feeling of Australians being worse off than they were when this government came to power.

Also, we have failed to hear anything from this government in support of small to medium business, who are also paying the price for these poor decisions by those opposite. We have continued to see the government fail to address the issues raised by the cost of living. We see presently before the House some proposed reductions of on average $15 a week for an average income earner, but that's just a fraction of the $150 a week-plus in additional living costs that have been incurred by Australians under this government, and we see no sign whatsoever of this government having the intestinal fortitude to do what needs to be done to rein in the cost of living. As we have seen consistently from this government—we see great consistency—they break every single promise they took to the last election and expect the Australian people to continue to believe them. It is just not good enough.

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