Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I happily rise to speak on this motion on the cost of living. The Albanese Labor government has delivered a restrained and responsible budget that will ease the cost-of-living pressures and not add to inflation. On 1 July this year, the Albanese government will deliver a tax cut to every Australian taxpayer, 13.6 million people. That includes the 76,000 people living in McEwen who will receive a tax cut. The average tax cut will be $1,583. In McEwen, that means 86 per cent of our taxpayers will be better off under Labor's tax cut. Additionally, every household will get $300 off their energy bill, which will help the household budget, but also over a million small businesses will be given cost-of-living relief through energy rebates. With this and the creation of better jobs and fairer wages across the country, the Albanese Labor government is standing up for Australians.

We've been talking about the fuel excise. The member for Fowler brought up the price of fuel. While I believe it's a bit rich for inner-city quasi Liberals to be raising this, I know it's an issue that affects my community, because we still have one of the highest rates of cars per household in the nation. Let's address the issues. Along with many others, Compare the Market's Chris Ford has attributed the rising fuel costs to the high price of crude oil. This is attributed to the conflict in the Middle East, higher wholesale prices from retailers and a weaker Australian dollar. But it's not predicted to stay that way for too long according to him. The member for Fowler argues that lowering the fuel excise, as the coalition temporarily did right before the election in 2022, is a solution. But, if you talk to the experts, like the head of the Australian Automobile Association, Michael Bradley, they warn against it. He said: 'As much as everyone doesn't like higher fuel prices and nobody likes paying tax, the fuel excise is a thing that enables governments to invest in the infrastructure we need. A short-term cut and a couple of cents will cause long-term pain. If we want the safe network that we need, if we want the efficient network we need, somebody has to pay for it. At the moment, it's the fuel excise that does that.' Money from the fuel excise goes directly towards fixing the state of our roads, something we in my community know the importance of all too well after nine years of funding starvation by the Liberal government, which took Victoria's road funding down to seven per cent of the nation's.

Getting from A to B, from work to the people you love, is important to this government. That's why in the budget we've committed $437 million of Commonwealth funding to the suburban road upgrades of south-eastern roads and northern roads. That includes funding a fair share of Yan Yean Road stage 2. The fuel excise cut only contributed to the appalling state of our roads because there was no money coming in to then go out to fix roads which were impacted heavily by things such as the wet winter we had. But the coalition thought they could fix roads with social media posts and unfunded promises. The fact is that you need to be able to fund roads with real money. You can't fill potholes with press releases.

We are committed to road safety. We are pragmatic. We care about getting Australians home safely to their loved ones. That's why we introduced the government's new vehicle efficiency standards. These will support a greater choice of fuel-efficient vehicles and lead to decreased fuel excise receipts of $470 million over the four years from 2024-25. There are many vehicles that are already meeting the standards. There are many vehicles today. You hear those opposite say, 'You can't get them.' That's absolute rubbish. If your vehicle runs AdBlue you're a 6. With the choice of electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles and hybrids we're giving a greater selection. But, more importantly, we're looking at more fuel-efficient vehicles. You can still have your weekend. You can still have your ute. You can still do your trade. Not everyone needs to have a little 1.1-litre car. But where you can and it's efficient and good for you to use, do it. Why not have a more fuel-efficient car? Instead of having those opposite sit there and play at culture wars amongst Australians, even though it was a policy that they were going to bring in, but, as with most, squibbed it at the last minute, why not actually look to how we can build a better nation? You do that by not following the lead of Russia, which is what they over there want to do.

We even had the Leader of the Opposition come to my electorate and raise the fear about using utes on the weekend. That's probably the reason why my primary vote went up. But I want to remind him and those opposite: it isn't about getting rid of the family ute. That is just absolute garbage. It's about stepping up and being in line with the rest of the world and having the opportunities they have. (Time expired)

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