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

I always enjoy listening to the member for Bean. He is someone that I do respect and do like. He is a good cricketer, and that is always nice as well. It was nice to hear him talk about technology. Technology is going to be crucial, so I hope he will join me in calling for the government to implement a minister for the digital economy. I've been calling for this since being elected. The previous coalition government had Senator Jane Hume, who was the minister for the digital economy. We had a plan, a strategy and a 2030 digital road map that was going to drive productivity. It was going to drive economic growth. It was going to help solve some of the challenges that we face as a nation, including high inflation. I hope the member for Bean and those opposite will join me in calling for the government and for Prime Minister Albanese to appoint a minister for the digital economy.

His decision, when elected, to have an Assistant Minister for the Republic but not a minister for the digital economy shows that his priorities are wrong and he doesn't understand a modern economy. The fact that he doesn't understand a modern economy is shown in our productivity being down eight per cent for this quarter. It has gone down 6.3 per cent under this government. When we talk about those numbers, they're important numbers.

As I said, productivity unlocks economic growth, and it keeps prices down. It does so because it's focused on the output for a business and offsetting their fixed and variable costs. If they're making more units per hour, it means the price stays lower. I was in those conversations prior to politics, when I was in business. We would look at our fixed and variable costs and our output, and that gave us our unit price that we then set with supermarkets and others.

We're in a world where interest rates have gone up 12 times under this government, where energy is up—over 14 per cent for electricity—and where insurance is going up. As all these costs and the cost of raw materials go up, the only way you can fight inflation, the only way you can bring prices down, is not to fight with the RBA governor; it's to have a strategy to increase productivity and unlock the strength of the private sector in Australia.

We can talk about the numbers, but I want to share the stories behind this urgent need for productivity that the government refuse to address. I want to share a story from Claire from my electorate: 'I'm a mother of two adult children, married and nearing retirement. I live in Montrose, and I'm an active environmental volunteer. My youngest has just moved out of home, aged 23, and is finding it really difficult to afford groceries and rent, despite working full time in a well-paid job. Last week, he told me he hasn't been able to afford a block of cheese for three months, he uses Not Quite Right and other unbranded foods and doesn't get enough veggies to eat, relying on $1 tins of tomatoes and tinned beans being on special to make a healthy meal. When he was living at home we tried to prepare him for the challenges ahead, but he said he had no idea it would be this bad. Once I heard about my youngest not being able to afford a block of cheese, that's when I started buying him cheese and other staples. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would need to help out our adult children with rent and food so they could remain housed and fed. This is not only their burden but mine too. At my age, it shouldn't be. I need to see real changes when I go to the checkout instead of exorbitant prices and no change at all.' Claire's story is one of thousands I could share from my community. This is the challenge people are having. And the way to bring prices down is through productivity. The way to bring interest rates down is not to fight with the RBA governor; it's to increase productivity. To quote the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock: 'The only way interest rates can be reduced is an improvement in our appalling productivity.'

Again, we don't hear about productivity. I commend the member for Forde for bringing this motion, because the government don't talk about productivity. They don't want to talk about productivity because they do not have a plan to increase it. It is going backwards—0.8 per cent, negative 6.3 per cent under this government. With the changes to the IR laws, it's getting harder and harder for business to have flexibility. Everyone wants workers to earn more, but it has to be at a sustainable level which is done through productivity growth. We see, with this government, that they've got a line for everything and a solution for nothing. The sad part is that it's those in Casey and in Australia that pay the price for this government's lack of action.

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