Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I hear 'preferences' from the member for Eden-Monaro, the regional development minister. That is so true. It's all about preferences, because that is how Labor will get back in. Rest assured: if we are in a minority government situation after the next election, the figures on insolvencies, energy costs, grocery prices and bowser costs for everybody who ever goes to fill up their car, their ute, their truck, their motorbike or whatever are going to be up and up and up. Let me tell you: if the Labor government is going to be led by the nose by the Greens political party then we are all in trouble, because the Greens don't just have an environmental agenda. That'd be fine if they did, but they have an economic agenda to dismantle the traditions of this nation. That's before they even start on social norms and fixing up everything they think is wrong with society.

But don't just take my word for it on the construction side. Look at CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun, who said:

On the construction side, interest rates do reduce construction, and there's the well-publicised cost pressure that businesses in the building industry have faced for a number of years now.

Construction had the second-highest business failure rate, with a 12-month average of 5.3 per cent, and it is a terrible indictment on this government that hospitality and construction have the largest number of businesses with debts to the tax office and the largest number of businesses failing. That leads to pressures on households, which are already crippled with debt, are already wondering how they're going to put Christmas presents under the tree for the kids come 25 December and are under pressure because of this government, which in its first few months did nothing but worry about a divisive referendum that failed. They didn't look at cost-of-living pressures at all. (Time expired)

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