Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

After nearly three years of this Albanese Labor government and its economic mismanagement, Australians are poorer. The truth is that we know that, historically, what happens is Australians become poorer under Labor. The Treasurer doesn't accept this. He thinks that they've never had it so good, and the biggest concession he could make in the papers this morning was that they are 'feeling' worse off. Those damn ingrates! How can they 'feel' bad about things when he's the Treasurer? The reason is simple: because they are worse off under Labor.

It's worth going to the facts, because the Treasurer doesn't rely on the facts very much. But I think we're going to spend a little bit of time on the facts, because this is more than feelings. This is way more than feelings; these are facts. The Employee Living Cost Index—this is what people who are in working families are paying for their cost of living—is up 18.9 per cent since Labor came to office. That $1 coin that we heard the Prime Minister talking about earlier today is worth close to 80c now, having fallen 18.9 per cent. Interest rates have gone up 12 times. We know a typical family living in South-Western Sydney—in my electorate—are paying $35,000 more than they were just a couple of years ago in after-tax income. But they're only 'feeling' worse off after that $35,000!

Meanwhile, interest rates are coming down in the US, the UK, Canada, Europe and New Zealand—not here. We are absolutely at the back of the pack in fighting and beating that underlying inflation, which is hurting families so much. Personal income tax payments being made by Australians are up 25 per cent since Labor came to power. Meanwhile, labour productivity in this country has fallen by 6.3 per cent. Actually, the member opposite wrote a book on this—the three Ps—and he made the point that productivity is the most important of the three Ps. It's 6.3 per cent down. It's in absolute freefall under this government because this Treasurer is hopeless and hapless, and all he is prepared to acknowledge is that Australians are feeling worse off under him. We also know—and we heard today—that business insolvencies are at a record high.

Opposition members: Shame!

And it was shameful the way the Prime Minister dealt with the facts that were outlined by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The truth is—and it's worth going through these facts again because the Prime Minister is in denial; those opposite love a bit of denial—that there were 1,364 insolvencies in the last month alone. That is a record; that is not ambiguous. It's ASIC data. It comes out each month. That is the highest that number has ever been, and that now gets us to a total of 24,700 businesses that have gone under. Australians who run small businesses are the hardest-working Australians around. There is nothing tougher than running a small business. It is a tough game, and they are in enormous pain. This Treasurer and this Prime Minister will not even accept that there are record levels of insolvency.

Sitting underneath this is something truly calamitous, and that is a collapse in Australians' standard of living. The real disposable income per person in Australia has collapsed under Labor—8.7 per cent since those opposite came to power. I have an apology to make to the House because a couple of weeks ago we had a little bit of an interaction with the Speaker over whether or not this was the worst Labor government since Whitlam. And the Speaker pointed out that this maybe is something we shouldn't be saying. It turns out he was right because this is the worst government since records began on real disposable income.

An honourable member: Never! Leave Whitlam alone! Leave Whitlam alone!

It is worse than Whitlam's government. It is worse than the absolutely disastrous Whitlam government, which I remember. I am old enough to remember standing on the polling booths to get rid of that government, and I'll be standing on the polling booths to get rid of this government, as will everyone here and all good Liberal supporters across the country, because this is absolutely disastrous. It's worse than 'the recession we had to have' in the early nineties. We didn't see anything like this collapse in living standards at that time. But we've also broken another record, and it's not a record we want to break. There have been six consecutive quarters of household recession. A household recession is GDP per person going backwards. We have never since records began seen six consecutive quarters of household per person going backwards.

The Treasurer of course, as he likes to do, spins it. He doesn't worry about the economics; he just focuses on the spin. He says that it's all okay because immigration has been at record levels. It's all okay. We've had a million people, as the shadow minister here knows, in two years, so it's all okay. A household recession is not okay. It is one of the reasons why Australians are hurting. He loves to talk about a soft landing. The only landing I see under this Treasurer is a crash landing. What we are seeing is completely unprecedented—an 8.7 per cent reduction in standards of living with no pathway to restoration of that standard of living any time soon. We have a household recession with six consecutive quarters, and, sadly, we see Saul Eslake saying today he expects another quarter of that as well. It's going to keep going as their record levels of immigration continue, and we of course see a sclerotic economy with a collapse in labour productivity and a Labor government and a Labor Treasurer that simply have no idea how to deal with these ailments.

Now, we also learned today that there are deficits coming as far as the eye can see. We have seen that in their budgets, but it's getting worse. Despite personal income taxes going up by 25 per cent, Deloitte Access has told us that the Treasurer is presiding over the biggest slump in the budget, outside of COVID, that we've ever seen—$49 billion. It's no wonder that he is raiding the nation's nest egg. It is no wonder he's decided to become the investment-allocator-in-chief for this country. He's coming after the Future Fund. And it's no surprise that the founder of the Future Fund, the first chairman of the Future Fund, the most recent chairman of the Future Fund and former prime minister John Howard have all come out saying that this is truly disastrous for this nation, as this Treasurer, as he runs out of money, raids these nest eggs.

But we know where he's going next. He'll be going to the industry super funds and saying, 'I want your money too.' It's not Australians' money, as far as he's concerned; it's his money to allocate and spend as he sees fit.

This is a guy who spent six months in the private sector and says it was the worst time of his career! But he wants to become the investment-allocator-in-chief. Even the member for Parramatta has spent a lot more time in the private sector than that.

An opposition member: He should be Treasurer!

Maybe he should be their shadow Treasurer. This is a Treasurer who has no idea.

Now, there is a better way, and that's getting back to basics; that is getting this country back on track, with outcomes, not gestures; delivery, not meetings; actions, not just promises; fighting inflation, not just alliteration. With this guy, it's three Rs, two Fs, four Ds—you know, he thinks he can fight inflation with alliteration! Well, you can't. You've actually got to do the real work.

That means getting rid of the reckless spending. That means making sure we're investing in the supply side of our economy and getting more houses built—500,000 houses; we've laid out how you can do it. It means getting rid of the bloated bureaucracy that is driving up inflation and making it harder for businesses to do what they want to do, making it harder for businesses to invest and grow and create jobs, which we know is the key to prosperity in this country, not sending more of them broke. Australians cannot afford another three years of Labor.

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