Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Government has failed to tame inflation;

(b) because of its undisciplined and unnecessary spending, inflation has remained higher for longer;

(c) interest rates have already gone down in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and in New Zealand but are still high here; and

(d) the Prime Minister said life would be 'cheaper' under his Government, and promised 'cheaper mortgages' but has instead delivered a household recession; and

(2) acknowledges that only the Opposition has a plan to get Australia back on track.

The Reserve Bank has made it clear that interest rates are staying higher for longer due to Labor's reckless spending. We have seen, under this Labor government, interest rates go from 0.35 per cent to now 4.35 per cent, with the Reserve Bank refusing to rule out further increases. This means that, every month, mortgageholders and renters are worried about increasing rates and how they can afford to cover their repayments or their rent.

Under this government we've seen some 12 interest rate rises, with the average mortgageholder now $35,000 a year worse off through increased mortgage repayments—and that's before we get to the small to medium sized business sector. I'm speaking to plenty of businesses who are struggling with increasing repayments or increasing interest costs on their overdrafts or their loans, and that is starting to impact on their ability to continue to do business.

Whilst Australians have been watching as interest rates go down in other countries across the world, including in the United States, Canada, the UK, South Korea and New Zealand, we are yet to see a rate cut here in Australia. This is despite the Reserve Bank's position being clear that underlying inflation remains too high and despite the Prime Minister declaring that the fight against inflation is done. It's a long way from the case.

The Reserve Bank forecast showed that the core inflation target of 2.5 per cent will not be reached until somewhere around December 2026. That's still two years away—two years more pain for hardworking Australian families.

Let's have a look at some of the prices that have gone up over the past several years. Since the election the price of everything has gone up by nearly 10 per cent—or more, in many cases—including: health costs, up by some 10½ per cent; education costs, up by 11.2 per cent; food prices, up by 12.3 per cent; housing costs, up by 13.1 per cent; rents, up by 16.3 per cent; financial and insurance costs, up by 17.3 per cent; and gas prices, up by nearly 34 per cent. It's that last one that I'd like to touch on. For one of my local businesses that uses a lot of gas to produce their fabric products, their gas bill has gone up from $125,000 a year to now $350,000 a year. They are talking about closing their doors, because they're saying now it is too hard to continue to do business.

All this is in the context of the Prime Minister saying during the last election campaign that things would be cheaper under a Labor government. Well, as I frequently say to people back in my electorate, don't listen to what this government says; look at what they do, because nine times out of 10 these are two completely and utterly different things. That is exactly what we've seen with the government's promises and the promises by the Prime Minister in the lead-up to the election. They all sounded great and sounded very nice, but at the end of the day the government have failed to deliver, whether it's on electricity, cheaper mortgages or just things being cheaper more generally. This government hasn't delivered for the Australian people; they've actually made things worse.

It is only a coalition government that will get things back on track so the Australian people can enjoy an improved standard of living. And we need to see this government continue to work, to fight, to tackle the scourge of inflation. Yet they're not doing that. They're continuing their reckless spending and the ideological pursuits right across the policy suite. We saw again on the weekend the true cost of their energy plan come to fruition, which is only going to further increase inflation. Only a coalition government will work towards bringing costs down for everyday hardworking Australians.

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