Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the government's failure to manage its crippling cost-of-living crisis. I thank the honourable member for Hume for bringing this matter of public importance to this place.

Labor cannot manage the economy. We have said so many times in this place. My parents have actually said to me, after about six months of Labor, 'We didn't think that we would ever have a government that spent and mismanaged the economy the way that Gough Whitlam did,' but we've got it here. We have seen it in all of the numbers. We have seen inflation far too high for far too long.

The Treasurer says things like, 'Inflation is coming down,' but I have not met anyone in the electorate of Hughes who has said to me that they now feel that their grocery prices are any less. They don't feel that their insurances are any less. They don't feel that their sports registration fees are any less. They don't feel that their fuel is any less. Certainly their mortgages are no less, because, with 12 interest rate rises under this Labor government, people in my electorate have paid more than $50,000 in additional interest payments over what they were paying under the former coalition government.

What has fuelled this inflation rate is $347 billion in additional spending. Labor sit there and say that spending has gone to better TAFE services, for example—actually, they don't say it's better TAFE services; they say it's fee-free. Free TAFE. But what is the use of throwing money at supposedly free TAFE when only about 50 per cent of students that start at TAFE are finishing? Why not give students the opportunity to also attend a private vocational education training service? It's because underlying all of Labor's philosophy and thinking is centralising control—centralising control even of the VET sector. We have seen no assistance whatsoever for any apprentices who wish to avail themselves of private training.

We've also heard that a lot of this spending has gone on Medicare. I'm glad I have the opportunity yet again to speak about this government's absolute failure on health. Today in question time I asked the minister, Minister Butler: '27,000 small businesses have collapsed under this government. How many GP clinics have closed in that time?' He had to take it on notice. The minister had to take it on notice. Why does he, as the minister for health, not have that figure to hand?

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