Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

After two months at home, some time with the family and time out with my community, I was hoping that those opposite might have spent some time in their community and that the Prime Minister might have got out. But, no, we're back again in February, and we've got the Prime Minister and the Treasurer telling the Australian people again how lucky they are and how they've never had it better. They're now getting to unfounded spin and scare campaigns.

Suddenly we've got members opposite talking about lunches for the top end of town. We now know that, apparently, a small business with $10 million in revenue is considered the top end of town by the ALP and the government. Apparently that is the big, rich people—those earning a revenue of $10 million—but that's not true. It's more spin from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. The reality is they have no answers to the collapse in living standards that Australians are facing. There's been an 8.7 per cent fall per capita since this government was elected, yet the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are telling us: 'Don't worry. We failed for three years, but trust us; we'll be better next time. We're really sorry we were no good. We couldn't deliver for you, but just trust us.' But we know that they can't deliver and that all they have is spin.

In question time it was interesting when the Prime Minister refused to talk about how much food and groceries have gone up. That's because they have gone up 12 per cent under his watch. But he said: 'No, we're doing things. We've got the mandatory code of conduct.' Let's park, for a minute, that the mandatory code isn't actually about supermarkets and prices for consumers, so it's not actually going to bring prices down. It's about how supermarkets treat suppliers, which is a really important issue, but it's not actually a cost-of-living measure. Let's park that for a second. The Prime Minister was willing to claim the mandatory code of conduct as one of their policies that have brought prices down and brought inflation down. There is one big problem with that claim by the Prime Minister: the mandatory code doesn't come into effect until 1 April 2025. Last time I checked, we're in February of 2025. It is a classic example of the spin from this Prime Minister, the spin from this Treasurer and the spin of those opposite. They think if they throw a line out that it's going to make a difference, but it doesn't. You have to address the core problem at the cause and the symptoms, and they can't do that. They're not prepared to make the tough decisions.

We had more spin from those opposite when the Minister for Home Affairs—who I note seems to spend more time in question time talking about his former portfolio than his current portfolio, which could explain some of the challenges we face when it comes to national security—claimed how great it was that the minimum wage was going up record levels. 'Record levels, how lucky; We've done a great job.' Again, They completely park two facts. They park that the Fair Work Commission is independent. They're really happy to take credit for the independent Fair Work Commission but walk away from the independent RBA. The second problem with that is that of course minimum wages are going up, because the Fair Work Commission look at inflation. Under this government, inflation has been out of control. The Prime Minister doesn't like to talk to it, but it got to 7.8 per cent at its highest under his watch—7.8 per cent under this prime minister. It's started to drop off because it's a reflective compounding impact, but Australians are still struggling.

We have a prime minister that, when he was asked to apologise about his $275 reduction in power bills, couldn't do that. He didn't apologise to the Australian people. We saw more spin about the $300 cut that he hasn't paid for—the Australian taxpayer has paid for it. He's taken money from taxpayers, from all of us, given it back to us, 'Give me a pat on the shoulder.' Even with that subsidy, power prices are up over $1,000 under this government, but they won't stand there and apologise. They talk about cuts to health and Medicare and these phantom issues. Let's look at the actual delivery of the Albanese government. They cut Medicare funded mental health sessions—20 under the former government cut to 10, despite a report saying that it needed to stay. Don't look at what the government say; look at what they do. For three years, they have failed to deliver for the Australian people.

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