Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an important motion that the member for Forde has raised today. The cost of living is impacting many people across the community, and the member for Forde has got a lot of support for this motion, including from the Prime Minister himself, at the Press Club. He likes to talk about how he stood up at the Press Club—as though anyone outside the Canberra bubble actually watches the Press Club addresses; let's be honest. But he did say in that address that the reason he broke his promise and misled the Australian people over 100 times was because his policies are not working. Eighteen months into this government and they have not addressed the cost-of-living crisis that this Prime Minister promised to solve before the last election. And they're actually making it worse every day: energy prices up, food prices up, electricity prices up, inflation continuing to increase.

It's interesting that the government's solution—a very good little political trick that this government has done—is to take with one hand and give back with the other. As the member for Longman said last year, many Australians were shocked when they got their tax return and it was about $1,500 short of what it normally was. The reason for that is that the low and middle income offset had ceased. We didn't hear anything from this government at the height of this cost-of-living crisis, 12 months ago. So, they were happy to take $1,500 from low- and middle-income Australians last year, in the middle of the year. They took that money away. And then in January the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the cabinet and the caucus broke their word to the Australian people that they took to the election. Their solution for Australians is not a dollar of relief today, not a dollar of relief in March, not a dollar of relief in April. Members of the Australian public who are on a low or middle income will get an extra $15 a week starting on 1 July. That is this Prime Minister's, this Treasurer's and this government's solution to the cost-of-living crisis that people are experiencing today. That's what happens when you have a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who have spent their whole lives in this building, in politics. They don't understand the challenges that people are facing. They look at the challenges the Australian people are facing, and they look for a political solution.

We know that in December the Labor backbench were getting a little bit antsy. The member for Bennelong, the member for Macarthur and the member for Hunter all spoke out about the government's lack of focus on the cost-of-living crisis. Others, unnamed backbenchers, didn't have the courage of the member for Macarthur and others and didn't put their name to their challenges, but we know there was unrest. That's the real reason that this Prime Minister broke his word: because he didn't want to lose power. He must've rewatched The Killing Season. We know he loves documentaries. He probably put that on over Christmas and realised he had to do a little bit of work.

And then what did the Treasurer say? The Treasurer had one of those Freudian slips last week on ABC, on 7.30. He misspoke. Mind you, Sarah Ferguson didn't pick him up on it—not a surprise. He misspoke and he said that we had to get these changes in before Dunkley. We have to get them in before the Dunkley by-election—those were the words of the Treasurer last Monday on ABC.

In one sentence, he summed up everything that is wrong with this government. They are focused on the politics and the spin. They think that $15 a day in five months time is the solution to this cost-of-living crisis that Australians are facing. Let's be honest: under this government, Australians need to keep every dollar that they earn because costs are going up and up. A $275 decrease in electricity bills was what this Prime Minister promised before the election. We're not going to see that. We are seeing inflation continue to rise. At 4.1 per cent, it's almost double the target of 2.5 per cent. It's a long way off. The RBA governor herself has said this inflation is home grown and demand driven—because this government continues to make the wrong decisions on the economy.

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