James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address this motion about the economic situation in Australia at the moment. I come at it from the perspective that anyone in this chamber would, which is what I'm hearing in my own community from the conversations I'm having with constituents. On Saturday, I was doorknocking in Royston Park, a suburb in my electorate, and earlier in the week I held a listening post at the Newton central supermarket and had some really good and diverse conversations with constituents about the challenges that they've got at the moment. A very consistent theme came up: people in different ways, for different reasons, are finding it really tough at the moment.

I was speaking to a constituent that bought a home a bit over three years ago and has just had her fixed loan roll off to a variable loan and has been hit with an enormous increase to her household mortgage because, of course, interest rates have gone up so dramatically in the last few years under this government. I spoke to a gentleman while doorknocking who has kids in their late 20s who he said have effectively given up the dream of being able to save up to buy a house. He's very worried about how he can support them to do what he was able to do decades earlier, which was, at the age that they're at, already be a homeowner and about how vitally important homeownership was to economic independence and economic security when he was in that stage of life that his kids are now in. I spoke to a lady who is making difficult decisions when she goes to the supermarket about things she used to buy that she's not buying anymore. She's purchasing frozen vegetables instead of fresh at times and different meat that's just what she can afford within the household budget. So it is tough. Those are just three examples of many that I'm hearing. I'd be very surprised if other members don't hear the same things from their constituents.

I think what constituents are looking for from government is not for them to congratulate themselves on how things are going, because no-one out there is saying, 'My life is really good at the moment.' They're saying quite the opposite. It is folly for governments to spin these situations and try to pretend, as this motion indicates, that people should be grateful for what this government is doing for them. I'm not getting that feedback from anyone. I get a lot of different stories and a lot of anecdotes about how things are tough, and they stretch across various issues in the household budget and in people's economic circumstances. But not a single person is saying, 'I feel like this federal government is really looking after us and has the right priorities at the moment and is doing things that are making my life better.' Everyone's talking about electricity prices going up, grocery prices going up, mortgages going up and rents going up. They're finding it tough to make the household budget work as it has in the past and having to make really difficult decisions, like cancelling family holidays, because those sorts of things that people look forward to, that are discretionary, have to be sacrificed in this very difficult economic circumstance that families are finding themselves in.

So I caution the government against congratulating themselves on the economic situation in this country right now, trying to convince Australians that they're doing something about cost-of-living pressures and thinking that the people of this country should be grateful and should be thanking the government for what they're doing, because not a single Australian, no-one in my electorate of Sturt, and I'm sure it's the same for most other members—their constituents are not saying, 'We really feel like the government's on our side, helping us and supporting us at the moment.' I'm getting the exact opposite feedback.

We don't need motions like this from the government, which is completely inaccurate and incorrect, to suggest that Australians are benefiting from any policy decisions of the government. We need decisions that will actually help Australians with the things that they're worried about, and that is the cost of living across a whole range of areas. This government has policy levers available to it that it's choosing not to pull. That means that they're not on the side of Australians; they don't have the right priorities. They should be condemned for that. We in the opposition will keep standing up for Australians that are raising with us these very serious and significant challenges that they're finding in meeting the household budget under this Labor government.

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