Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Over the last fortnight I've been talking to families and businesses across the Berowra electorate. They're hurting because costs are going up and Labor 's economic policies are making things worse. They are people like Adam, who's a small-business owner from Thornleigh Through his business, Adam supports 11 families. He wrote to me and said, 'I'm working six to seven days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day, missing out on family time, trying to cover my costs. My kids are missing out because I need to keep on top of the business and paperwork, and support my employees.' I spoke to Ajit, a small-business owner from Pennant Hills and heard about his struggles with the massive increases in energy and gas prices, rising rent, and higher interest rates impacting the purchasing power of his customers. Ajit told me that his energy prices have doubled since Labor came to office. In my recent Berowra small-business survey, 70 per cent of businesses said that the cost of living has impacted customer demand. How can small businesses be expected to survive the economic climate that Labor has created? The sad answer is they can't.

Labor 's economic policies are based on a range of bad ideas that have been tried and have failed, yet despite the experience this government are trying them again. We see Labor 's approach in the way they are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. Orthodox economic policy is that when inflation is going up and up you reduce government spending to take pressure off prices, but Labor have increased government expenditure to the tune of $315 billion since they came to office. We have a productivity crisis. Orthodox economic policy says that you create greater flexibility in the labour market to improve productivity and to create more jobs, but Labor's re-regulation of the labour market in response to the demands of their union mates is making the lives of Australians harder. Orthodox economic policy says that you let markets decide what industries to invest in, and when governments pick winners you end up with bad results. But Labor's manufacturing policy is taking the same failed approach. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. To quote that great political philosopher, Forrest Gump, 'Stupid is as stupid does.'

People in my community and around the country are hurting because of Labor 's policies that are damaging our economy, eviscerating the private sector's productivity, and making the cost of living worse and worse. The Albanese government have failed to manage the economy, and last week's national accounts demonstrate how bad their management is. Outside the pandemic, we are now at the slowest GDP growth since the nineties, with the sixth consecutive quarter of negative GDP per person growth and the longest per capita recession in 50 years. No Australian can possibly say that they are better off today than they were when this government came to power in May 2022.

Under the weight of this bad Labor government, productivity has collapsed by 6.3 per cent, living standards have fallen by 8.7 per cent, household savings are down 10.2 per cent, personal income taxes are higher to the tune of 25.3 per cent, and interest paid on mortgages has almost tripled. Labor inherited a strong economy with low unemployment, strong growth and recovering government finances, and they've wasted it. Our core inflation is now higher than all the comparable economies, including all the English-speaking democracies and most of Europe. Australians are paying more and getting less. Gas is up 33 per cent, electricity is up 14 per cent, rents are up 16 per cent, and the cost of food is up 12 per cent. This winter, too many Australians in my community had to choose whether to put the heating on or to put food on the table. The story for small businesses is terrible as well, as the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman told us last week. Forty-six per cent of small businesses didn't make a profit in the past year. Three out of four self-employed business owners are earning less than the average total weekly full-time wage. Twenty per cent of small businesses are struggling to pay their energy bills on time and 45 per cent are concerned about their ability to pay future energy bills.

Australians saw the highest number of insolvencies in the last financial year, with more than 11,000 businesses going insolvent. Behind each of those insolvencies is the human tragedy: the story of a family which has put its house on the line. Rather than fighting inflation at this time, this Treasurer has decided to pick a fight with the Reserve Bank Governor, because Michele Bullock had the temerity to tell the Treasurer a few home truths when she said 'the only way interest rates can be reduced is an improvement in our appalling'—yes, that's the word she used—'productivity'. This should be the government's sole focus, but it isn't.

Australians have never needed a change of government more than they do right now, and in this election Australians will face a real alternative. Winning the fight against inflation and improving productivity is the only way to ease the cost-of-living pressures that are facing Australians. The Labor government is hurting Australians and the Australian people have had enough. It's time for a new government.

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