Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to my colleagues from both sides who have spoken on this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Reserve Bank Reforms) Bill 2023. It is a sad position that we have arrived at. It seems that in many negotiations for bipartisan support, which is to be welcomed, they don't always get there. The glue required for it to get there is trust. That trust was broken in the last week. And it was broken by the conduct and the actions of the Treasurer, backed in by others, including the former Treasurer and his former boss in their attack of the RBA. That's what changed here.

We've heard indignation upon indignation from those opposite saying, 'How dare you not sign up to the agreement that we were negotiating with you?' It happened because of the very calculated way in which the Treasurer sought to deflect attention and accountability from himself and the government to the RBA. That's the unprecedented change. That's why we're in this position. It is disappointing that that has happened. You have to ask: why has the Treasurer done that? He has done that because of the real economic data that is coming in. It's data that we know to be true when we speak to families in our electorate. They know they have less money in their pocket. They know that the prices of everything are going up. They know that their mortgage repayments are at record levels. They know they are being pushed into higher tax brackets through bracket creep. They know that real incomes are down because their real incomes are down.

Let's look at the data we've had come in. Living standards in Australia have collapsed. They have collapsed by a figure of 8.7 per cent since this government took office. It's common in various election campaigns for leaders or opposition leaders to ask, 'Are you better off than you were two or three years ago?' It's a legitimate question, and it can't be a question that's asked in a self-serving way when it suits. The answer to that question—and we're not fully through this term—is no, and by a figure of 8.7 per cent. The average wage in Australia is $95,000. The median wage, which half of all Australians are on, is $65,000. They didn't have 8.7 per cent sitting around in a savings account to deal with this loss in real income.

Let's talk about the three categories that are hitting Australians. Firstly, there is the cost of everything. The key energy commodity, gas, which is particularly important in the colder states like mine, in Victoria, is up 33 per cent.  For anyone who knows a little bit about compound maths, how does that work going forward? It works in this way. I spoke to a dry cleaner in my electorate, in Templestowe, who has been there for many decades. He said that in the last six years—and I acknowledge that goes over multiple governments—his gas bill for his drycleaning business is six times what it used to be. Other than wages—and he's self-employed, so he is the wage—gas is his No. 1 expense. It's gone up six times in six years. It's rising faster than it ever has before. Electricity is up 14 per cent, even after the rebates; rent is up 16 per cent; health is up 11 per cent; education is up 11 per cent; food is up 12 per cent; and insurance is up 17 per cent.

You can't just isolate those increases to this term. They are compounded over time so that when people reflect upon where they were five or 10 years ago, there are many multiple increases in the bills that are going out. So the first part of the trifecta is the cost of living. And it's more than a slogan. It is about real impact and that heartbeat that gets skipped when people open that envelope and look at the bill. The second part of the trifecta is interest rates and mortgage repayments. Those who are paying off a mortgage or trying to rent a house where the landlord is paying off a mortgage are getting hit harder than anyone else.

My good friend the member for Bennelong is sitting opposite. We've heard from the big bank CEOs who have quite clearly said that not all Australians have been hit equally. They're not. Those who have been hit hardest are aged between 30 and 44, and they live in the south-eastern states, including my state of Victoria and the member for Bennelong's state of New South Wales. They're being hit extra hard. It's not an accident that that's happening under this government's watch. The third part of the trifecta that leads to the drop in real disposable income is the fact that income tax is rising as Australians are pushed through higher brackets for income tax. That's what is referred to by the term 'bracket creep'.

So what does the government propose to do in all of this? The one thing they could do that is meaningful is to take pressure off the Reserve Bank by pulling spending back, and they haven't done that. In fact, they've done the opposite: they've put their foot on the gas. They have massively increased spending in this term, and that has caused, more than anything else, the Reserve Bank to have to do the work.

The second part is what we hear about all the time in question time, in talking points and in the media: 'Don't worry about the 8.7 per cent loss in real disposable income; the government's here to help.' But that help is treating the symptoms and not the cause of this economic crisis. We are giving families who are facing a $10 increase in a bill a $1 subsidy—10 to one. It's not even touching the edges. It's not helping, but the government get to say, 'We're here to help, and you voted against it, coalition.' 'Well, we are a serious party that is here to propose solutions that treat the causes and not the symptoms, and the cause is excessive government spending.' Then, again, the reply is predictable: 'Oh, well, coalition, tell us what key programs you're going to cut, including in veterans and in much-needed care-economy expense items.' Again, that's a cheap talking point. At the very time when families are cutting back on their own expenses—they're finding savings, and they don't have many places to look—we know there is waste and inefficiency in government. We know that, and there are many places to find savings. We know this government is not even looking for them, because it's having you or the RBA do all the work on the increases.

When we considered these reforms, there were some good parts that I think sensible people can agree on. But at the core of our concern is a lack of trust in this government to deal with it, because this government is looking for anyone to blame but itself. The Treasurer has shown that in question time. There's a reason the Treasurer was asked a question in question time today and yesterday. There were a lot of complaints that we weren't doing that in the last sitting period, but I do not think the government's too happy that they are getting asked. The Treasurer was asked to confirm if Australia had been in a household recession for the past six quarters, which is the longest-running per capita drop on record. It's a pretty simple question with a simple answer. What did he say? All he could say was that the government was throwing around multiple billions in subsidies—the very thing that's leading to the increase in interest rates. That's all he could respond with. He was invited to confirm that, since the government was elected, Australian families have suffered a bigger real fall in disposable income than any other OECD country—it's not a record you want to break. Again, instead of addressing that real concern, which is a fact, the Treasurer spent his time talking about the coalition, engaging in politics rather than actually solving the problems for Australian families.

This is bigger than the election cycle that we have before us. We have collapsing productivity rates in Australia. When we pull open and dust off the Intergenerational report from last year, we see that current projections of government spending will go from $25,000 per person to $40,000 per person in 2063, within a generation—and that's adjusted for inflation. Without increases in productivity, how does that work? How do we get to be the prosperous nation that people move heaven and earth to move to? How do we get to be a nation that rewards hard work, education and people who take a risk, rather than being born into the right family? How does that work when the average wage will still be, with no increases in productivity, $95,000—and a median of $65,000—when $40,000 per person is required for Commonwealth government spending alone? It doesn't work. So this isn't just about the immediate cycle. This is structural. This is serious. It's about what sort of nation we want to be and whether we can afford the things that Australians rely upon us to deliver.

It would have been nice to have worked together on this, but trust was obliterated when the government and the Treasurer sought to avoid responsibility for the very thing they have been elected to deal with. We talk about going to our electorates and earning their trust. Well, Australians lent their trust to this government at the last election, and it has been abused. I think Australians are asking themselves, 'Am I better off than I was 2½ years ago?' and the answer is a clear 'no'.

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