Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2023-2024 and Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2023-2024, which provide additional expenditure in 2023-24. These bills provide funding for the general purposes of government for the fiscal year 2023-24. Appropriation Bill (No. 5) provides a further $2.1 billion for the ordinary services of government, including $1.17 billion for the Social Services portfolio. Appropriation Bill (No. 6) provides just under half a billion dollars for certain expenditures relating to non-operating costs, including payments to the states and local government. The majority of this—$452 million—is for the Department of Defence. This expenditure allows for a reclassification from operating to capital. The opposition will support the passage of these bills, as we have the passage of the initial appropriation bill 2023-24 and the additional appropriation bill in 2024.

The shadow Treasurer spoke previously on the appropriation bill as well, and said that Australians are poorer under the Albanese Labor government. Australians are paying the price for Labor's wrong priorities and bad decisions. He spoke about Labor's homegrown inflation, that the cost of living was up, that energy prices are up and that mortgages, rents and groceries are all up under the Albanese Labor government.

This budget fails a key test: to tackle inflation at its source. Instead of addressing the cause of Labor's homegrown inflation, Labor's spending is up by some $315 billion, which the member for Hume has spoken about. He also said that the average Australian household has been left $35,000 worse off. I'm seeing that in my own electorate of Petrie, where people were promised at the Labor campaign speech in 2022 that mortgages would be cheaper under the Prime Minister. The front page of the Courier-Mail and other papers two years ago was, 'You will be better off under me,' with the Prime Minister on the front page. But what's happened since then? This is what people need to know. Their mortgages have gone through the roof. The average person in my electorate is up to $35,000 worse off. Some might be $25,000 worse off. Some might be more. You've got to ask yourself: under the Albanese Labor government with the support of the Greens party in the Senate, how is this working out for Australians and the people of Petrie? I would say that it's working out poorly, that Australians were much better off under the coalition government and that, at the next election next year, under the leadership of Peter Dutton, the Leader of the Opposition, we'll make sure that we have policies that make Australians better off, not worse off like we're seeing under this current Albanese Labor government.

We are all poorer for the Albanese Labor government. It's just going from one thing to the next. The budget also fails the economic test the Shadow Treasurer set for the Treasurer. In these uncertain economic times, we needed a budget that got back to basics. That meant a budget that restored our standard of living. This doesn't do that. It doesn't matter your age. Whether you're retired or whether you're a young person just finishing uni, the standard of living has dropped under the Albanese Labor government with the support of the Greens party in the Senate. We needed a budget that restored prosperity and created opportunity for small businesses, for family businesses, to make sure that their costs weren't higher. That's passed on every day when people go and shop or buy the services that they need. We needed a budget that restored prosperity and created opportunity for young Australians and helped them into a home. We haven't seen that with this government, whereas the coalition has policies outlined by the Leader of the Opposition in the budget in reply that are aimed at young people, who would be able to use a percentage of their money in superannuation because we know that getting people into a house is the No. 1 thing that helps people.

We know that because we've seen rents go through the roof as well. I did a poll in my own electorate of Petrie the other day, asking people if their rents have gone up. Yes, most people's rents have gone up by at least $100 in the last two years. Now, that's a lot of money if you're on the minimum wage, on government services or even if you're on a good wage raising a couple of kids. If you've got 100 bucks a week extra, that's another $5,200 out of your own pocket—not to mention increases around grocery, energy, gas and electricity prices, which they were promised would be lower under the Albanese Labor government. We know that's gone nowhere. The $300 announced by the Treasurer in the budget doesn't even touch the surface. That won't even cover the increases that the people of Petrie have seen in the last two years since they were elected.

They were outdone by the Miles Labor government, by the way. The Miles Labor government offered all Queenslanders a thousand bucks, so, when everyone tuned into the Treasurer's budget a week or so later and saw a measly $300, they thought, 'What's that going to do?' So Queenslanders will get $1,300 due to the Miles Labor government and the Albanese Labor government, but guess what. It's still for 12 months. After that, you're all still paying higher again. The Miles Labor government want to get re-elected for a fourth or fifth term—whatever it is—in October this year, so they give you a little sweetener for 12 months, and then what happens in years 2, 3 and 4? Nothing! Everyone will be paying higher energy costs again.

It's the same with the Albanese government and their lousy $300. They'll give $325 to small businesses in Petrie. We heard in question time the week before last that a gym in Western Sydney had its energy bill go from $12,000 to $27,000. But don't worry; they're getting 325 bucks from this PM! Your bill's gone up 15 grand but, hey, we'll give you $325! Thanks very much! What's that going to do to gym membership? To everyone who wants to join the gym in the member for Lindsay's seat in Western Sydney or in my seat of Petrie: if the gym's energy bill has gone up by $15,000 under the Labor government in two years, what will that do to your gym membership? I can tell you what it's going to do. Your gym membership is going to go up. That's what's going to happen. Then you're going to have fewer people going to the gym and you're going to have higher numbers of health issues as a result of people not exercising.

See this speech in context