Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Well, this has been an interesting sitting fortnight. We have seen this afternoon the Prime Minister again refuse to answer even the most basic of questions. We know that at the moment the Australian public are really doing it tough. There is no hiding it, and the government can't deny it. As you go around the country and visit regional areas, outer metropolitan areas, and as you talk to people in the cities, people say they have massive increases in their bills—their electricity bills, their gas bills. Their mortgages are up.

We know that for every family at the moment it is a struggle to put food on the table, but it wasn't like this two years ago. It wasn't like this two years ago because we had a capable, competent government that managed the economy.

During the course of COVID we provided support to the Australian people but before that we made decisions in subsequent budgets which made it easier not harder for families yet we know that in three budgets now, the government has had the opportunity to take decisions, to deal with what was on the horizon. They had an understanding of what was happening in international markets. They knew what was happening with inflation. They knew what was happening with the energy markets and instead of taking prudent decisions which would put downward pressure on inflation and therefore downward pressure on interest rates, this government has taken decisions to spend more and more money, which has done the complete opposite.

In spending an additional $315 billion, they drive up inflation. It is important for Australian families to hear this very clear message: the reason that interest rates are high in this country and that they are staying high and that the Reserve Bank governor warns that they may go higher is that inflation is high. Why is inflation high? It's because government is spending money at a federal and state level and pumping that money into the economy, which is driving up inflation. Farmers and manufacturers of food and all of the items that you use in your house or in your small business—all of them are facing the same pressure that you are when you get your electricity bills and your gas bills through the mail or by email.

This is why, when you go to Coles and Woolies or to an IGA, you're seeing much higher prices. The statistics show an 11.4 per cent increase in grocery prices, but it's much higher than that for the average basket. The reason is that all of the people involved in the production of that food are facing massive increases in their electricity bills because of the Albanese government's renewables-only policy. They're storing food in coldrooms, and the power bill has doubled or trebled. All of that cost is being passed on to you as a consumer, and that is fuelling inflation. We know that, not just in this period of government but in past periods of government, Labor don't manage the economy well. None of them have been involved in small business, none of them have been involved in managing staff, none of them have been involved in presiding over business decisions that will help run an economy, and it shows in every single budget.

When we look at the situation, we know that we need to spend money prudently. We know that we need to provide support to those who can't provide support to themselves. We know—and it's a true ethos of our party, as well—that we provide support to people and help them keep more of their money as they work harder. We know that, for our party, we support choice and that we want people to be able to go into a free market and to exercise their choice to do so in an affordable way. When we make decisions in budgets, as we have done in governments before and as we will do after the next election, we will make decisions to get our country back on track. We will make decisions that will put downward pressure on inflation. We will spend prudently. And, where there is a distortionary impact in the market that is adversely affecting consumers, we will address that concern.

In the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Canada and in Europe, they all have divestment powers where there is market competition that is being used in a way that is detrimental to consumers and others, including farmers, in the supply chain. In the last parliament, there was a bipartisan position in relation to divestiture for energy companies that were demonstrated to have market power and a concentration of market share which resulted in higher prices or a distortion to the market and therefore loss of competition and higher prices for consumers. There's nothing controversial in that, but the Prime Minister this week dismissed it out of hand. I say to the Prime Minister that our parties, the Liberal Party and the National Party, the coalition, are standing with consumers in this debate, and we're standing against duopolies in circumstances where they are misusing their market power.

There's a heavy responsibility that comes to businesses with a turnover of more than $5 million a year—think Coles, Woolworth, Aldi and Bunnings. Those companies have a very important role to play in the economy, but we are not going to stand by, as the party of small business, as the party that has the economic management runs on the board, and allow the market to be distorted in a way where consumers are adversely affected. There is nothing controversial in that. All of these experts who want to comment about what the Liberal Party stands for and the Menzies tradition—Robert Menzies was in favour of small business. Robert Menzies was in favour of families. Robert Menzies was in favour of tradies. Robert Menzies was in favour of all of those people who worked hard in the economy, and his judgement was that big business should take care of itself and that we should provide an environment in which it can thrive, but not to the disadvantage of those smaller, forgotten Australians.

The party that I lead will stand up for the forgotten Australians, because this government has left millions of Australians behind. This government has ramped up interest rates to a point where people are paying $35,000 more for their mortgages. This Albanese government has driven up the cost of every element of your budget.

We will work hard to make life affordable again. We've taken a decision, in relation to this matter, to say to Coles and Woolworths, for example, in a market where they have an existing store and they've used their balance sheet to buy up four or five sites that might be vacant land or have development opportunity, and where a competitor may set up in competition and that particular company has bought each of those sites—not because they're a property developer or because they have an interest in building units or developing retail spaces—that those supermarkets are doing that so they can stop competitors coming into that marketplace.

Anybody who believes that calling out that kind of behaviour is against the values of the Liberal Party has no comprehension of the background or, indeed, the future of this party. Our party will make sure that markets operate in a fair way, not just to Coles and Woolies but to everybody else in the marketplace—to the suppliers, the farmers and the consumers. We're not about investing into a market where we have a disproportionate amount of power exerted to the disadvantage of those who are powerless. That's not what our party is about, and I will make sure that our party continues to stand up for everyday Australians.

We have an energy policy that is about bringing down prices. It's about making sure that as we decarbonise we can have greener electricity, and it's about making sure that we have reliable and consistent power, because if we do that we can have a modern economy. If we help and not hinder through our budget process, for all of those entrepreneurs, all of those families, all of those who strive for more for their generation and the next, that is how we will continue to build this great country.

There's a lot of uncertainty in the world at the moment, but we need a strong and secure country. We need to make sure that we have the strength of leadership to stand up for the forgotten Australians. We need to say to everyday Australians that there is a better way. Everyday Australians know now, as they sit around the kitchen table of a night-time, that the last two years have been very hard and it's getting harder. Three more years of a Labor government will make it unbearable. For families who are thinking about selling their house because they can't afford to pay their mortgage, for families who are losing their private health insurance or taking their kids out of school because they can't afford to pay the fees, and for families who can't afford to pay the rego or can't afford to buy a cut of steak and are either missing out on the consumption of meat altogether or buying mince or cheaper cuts, there is a better way.

At the next election, there will be a very stark choice between the Labor Party led by Anthony Albanese—three more dark years of economic failure—and a much brighter future under a coalition government.

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