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

It is nice to rise on this motion. In many ways, this motion sums up the hypocrisy and the political spin of those opposite. The member for Spence—good person; Collingwood supporter—has good judgement. It's clear that a minister has put him up to this motion, so this is isn't about him; it's about the motion. The reason it shows the hypocrisy of the Labor government is that they're very happy to claim credit for the independent Fair Work Commission's decision but, when asked about the independent RBA and the 12 interest rate rises under this government, the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and those opposite run a mile. So make a decision. If you're going to claim credit for the independent Fair Work Commission, at least have the courage to own the decisions of the independent Reserve Bank of Australia, which has raised interest rates 12 times under this government. You can't have it both ways, and the Australian people see that hypocrisy.

That's what this government does. It's spin and politics. We saw last week that Treasury put out a report about money that the Australian people are supposedly going to get next week. The government is spending taxpayer resources on political spin. What they should be doing is coming up with solutions to drive economic growth, to drive productivity growth—solutions like the Consumer Data Right. The Consumer Data Right is so important in a digital economy, in a digital world. The former coalition government introduced the CDR, but the Assistant Treasurer, himself, on 7 June 2023, said about CDR:

The promise of CDR is great. As a competition policy, it has the potential to drive a better deal for consumers across a range of good and services, and drive productivity growth across a number of industries.

If we make CDR work it can democratise consumer data and lower the barriers to entry and mobility for financial services and wealth creation, so that services that were inaccessible to many people can now be available in their pockets.

And he's right. On one thing he's right. But that was 7 June 2023. Since that time, there has been no action from the Assistant Treasurer on the Consumer Data Right.

Well, there was a little bit of action; there was a statutory review of the Consumer Data Right, and that found that the CDR—I quote—'was a game changer'. So we've had a review but no action. The legislation for the CDR was introduced in late 2022 by the Assistant Treasurer. Then it went to a Senate committee, and it received bipartisan support. Since March 2023, it has been a permanent fixture on the Notice Papers. Deloitte found that the Australian economy would be $16.7 billion larger by 2043 if the Consumer Data Right were to expand beyond banking and the energy sector and approximately 46,800 additional jobs could be expected from the combined effect of greater competition and innovation from cross-sector data sharing.

So the Assistant Treasurer knows it's good. The independent data from Deloitte shows it's good. But for over 18 months this government has done nothing to bring this policy forward. It's done nothing to drive economic growth and productivity for the Australian people. They spin independent decisions, but they're not actually taking ownership.

We know that wage rises are crucial, particularly with the cost of living going up. I see those opposite cheer and talk about how, in the last three years, the minimum wage has gone up more than any other time. Well done! It's because inflation is going through the roof. The cost of living is out of control. It is the equivalent of burning down someone's house, taking them a casserole for dinner and saying: 'Sorry I burnt your house down. Here's a casserole. Please be thankful and grateful.' The reason the minimum wage has to go up so much is that inflation is continuing to grow and compound. It is homegrown, as the RBA governor said, and as the RBA analysis last week showed, the budget was expansionary, and an expansionary budget drives inflation. It puts pressure on all Australians and all household budgets, and all we get from those opposite is spin and politics and taking credit for an independent Fair Work Commission.

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