Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

That is a shame, member for Moncrieff. Indeed, they are paying more for rent—that's if you can find affordable housing. Those people who have mortgage rates are doing it so very tough at the moment. It is so difficult to get into the housing market, and Labor are making it just more difficult by their policies and by what they do every day. Of course, then we've got those people trying to make ends meet when they go to the grocery store. They are getting fewer groceries and they are paying more for them. They are paying more for petrol every time they go to the petrol browser. We just see no end in sight to this mess.

We need to get Australia back on track. As the Leader of the Opposition has said repeatedly, what we will do when next in government is rein in inflationary spending to take the pressure off inflation. The member for Rankin doesn't get that. He is the Treasurer; he ought to get it. We'll not be spending $13.7 billion on corporate welfare for green hydrogen and critical minerals. Some of the policies in the energy space and some of what Labor is doing to pay $107 million to Western Australian sheep farmers to stop farming is just a nonsense, and it's causing inflationary pressures. It is making things more difficult. We'll wind back Labor's intervention and remove regulatory roadblocks, which are suffocating the economy and stopping businesses from getting ahead. That's what we should be doing. We should be helping our businesses, supporting our businesses, supporting the economy and making sure that we address cost-of-living pressures.

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