Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I commend the member for Spence for speaking on such an important topic. He's providing the leadership that we need on this issue, and I'm sure that, if all of us here were honest, we would all have our own stories to tell. Thank you very much, member for Spence.

Inflation picks its victims very unfairly. I'm sure that any of us who go around our electorates will meet those who are unfortunate enough to be bearing the full brunt of the cost-of-living crisis that we're going through, but we'll also see people who have come through this not just unscathed but ahead. That's the way inflation works. Some people bear the cost more than others. This causes me to bring the moral case forward for a reduction in government spending, which is what I will be talking about.

We are in a per capita recession here in Australia—we have been for the last five quarters. The national account figures that we saw released yesterday confirmed that. What this means is that we're going backwards, and this is sadly being papered over because of the government's deployment of immigration policies which are increasing the size of the pie—but everyone's small bit of it has just got that much smaller. That's what a per capita recession is. The government is very keen to keep us out of a technical recession. To be very clear, I hope that we are able to stay clear of that. But they're keeping us out by the deployment of this immigration policy. We brought in 500,000 people in the 12 months leading up to last September. This is an unprecedented amount. It is the only thing that's keeping us out of that technical recession. I want to raise this, because, when we look at our electorates, we'll see the different demographics who are hurting.

The group that troubles me most is the 21- to 29-year-olds, who have seen their discretionary and non-discretionary spending go backwards. They're the only demographic that has had that happen to them. Their ability to save for a house is reduced because the cost of everything is going up, and, even if they are able to get a loan from the bank of mum and dad, their ability to service a loan on a house is non-existent as well. These are people at the start of their careers, probably on lower wages, and they are experiencing cost pressures across the board. To make things worse, we saw in the media just yesterday that the government's housing plan has not delivered a single house yet and, according to the industry experts, will not deliver another house in this term of government. So the answer that they have been given is empty. The promise, 'No, we'll sort out housing,' is empty.

So I have concern for that group, and I have concern for pensioners who are renting on a fixed income. The cost of everything around them is going up. These are people who have contributed to our society and contributed to the economy. In what should be their golden years, their standard of living is going backwards. I can't help but look across the economy and say, 'This isn't the Australia we want.' This is the problem with inflation. It doesn't lay like a blanket evenly across us. Some people hurt more than others.

Every major economist has come out and said that this budget and the government's policies are not helping fight inflation. In fact, they are inflationary. We have a situation where the RBA is trying to pull money out of the economy by raising interest rates, and we have a government that is pushing money back in. That's why we're stuck here. We're not moderating; we're stuck. We were supposed to see an interest rate drop this year. Now we've got the Governor of the RBA still keeping alive the prospect of a rise in the next 12 months.

Reducing spending is not something that is only a partisan point of view. I go back to the fact that the last government that reduced spending three years in a row was the Hawke government. They had to. It was a position that they had to take. When I raise the issue of reducing government spending, I get back this position as if there's something inherently negative within the Liberal Party. No, this is sensible government. There is a narrow path we must walk together with the RBA and with the Australian people, back into that target band of two to three per cent inflation. We're not going to get there if the government and the RBA are fighting against each other. By continuing to pour fuel on the fire, the government is keeping inflation up.

Inflation picks its victims very unfairly. There is a moral case for reducing government spending, and I think we need to take that case up and take it to the Australian people.

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