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

That's why we say that Labor simply cannot manage the economy. That's why we've seen inflation far too high for far too long. Labor cannot manage the budget. That's why we've seen $347 billion in additional spending that has fuelled inflation. The evidence of the Albanese Labor government's failures has been mounting since first elected in May 2022. We have to remember that is only two years and nine months—that's all it's taken for our economy to almost completely collapse.

They've had $347 billion in expenditure, but what do they actually have to show for this? What they have to show for it is higher prices, higher interest rates, more small businesses collapsing, and lower living standards. Since Labor was elected, prices overall are up more than 10 per cent. This includes double-digit increases across the board for many of our essentials. Health is up by 10 per cent. Education overall is up by 11 per cent. Food is up by 12 per cent. Housing is up by at least 14 per cent. Rents are up 17 per cent. Insurance and finance are up 18 per cent. Electricity is up 32 per cent—that's without the rebates. Gas is up by 34 per cent.

Under Labor's economic mismanagement ,we're witnessing the longest sustained period of inflation since the 1980s. We've seen, for example, interest rates that have been hiked 12 times. In relation to energy bills, we were promised in the last election campaign—how many times?—97 times that the now Prime Minister would cut your power bills by $275. Since then, instead, we've seen energy bills rise by an average of $1,000 per household. In my home state of New South Wales, we are now in the ridiculous situation where during summer in Sydney, we've been asked by the New South Wales government not to use our washing machines during the day, and, also, to please try not to use our air conditioning during the day. Almost every day is over 30 degrees in Sydney during summer. That is the position that we have gotten to because of the decisions that have been made, particularly by Minister Bowen. I notice Minister Bowen is fairly quiet these days. I don't expect that he'll be front and centre in this election campaign.

We've seen living standards collapse by 8.7 per cent under this government. That's the biggest collapse on record, and it's bigger than any of our peer economies. We've even seen, for example, respected economics firm Deloitte release figures showing that Australians' standard of living will not recover now until at least 2030. In other words, it's forecast that it will take six years for Australians to make up the ground lost under Labor in two years and nine months.

The number of small businesses that have gone to the wall has been a complete tragedy—27,000 in two years and nine months. I know that, in my electorate of Hughes, we have many, many small businesses. Close to 10 per cent of my entire electorate work in the building and construction industry, for example. These are often family businesses, and so many of these have collapsed, and that's a real shame, because this government does not care about small business, but they are very happy to spend a lot of time with big business, particularly this Prime Minister.

So we've now reached the position where we are in a sustained household recession with negligible productive growth. And what is Labor's response to this? Denial, indifference—the Prime Minister tells Australians, 'Trust me, you'll be better off under Labor.' That message is certainly not cutting through in my electorate. I know, when I'm out doorknocking, when I've been at mobile offices, they are not saying that they are going to trust Labor on this. What I've found, to the contrary, for example—this is heartbreaking. Before Christmas I was doorknocking around Bardia. It's one of the new parts of my electorate; it's down in south-west Sydney. Down in Bardia, they are homeowners with mortgages. The median house price is around $1.2 million. They are small-business people. They are private sector workers. When I was doorknocking, I had three women—when I said to them, 'How are things going for you at the moment?'—burst into tears and say: 'I don't know how I'm going to pay for Christmas. I've just had to pay my energy bill,' or 'I can't pay my mortgage this month.' That's dreadful. That's middle Australia. These are absolutely the people that this government should be governing for and should be assisting, but they're not.

I know that presidents of some of my local sporting associations and sports clubs have said to me that, for the first time in the 10 or 20 years that they have been involved with local sport, parents are coming up to them quietly and saying, 'Could I pay the registration fees off over a couple of months?' This is happening in the Sutherland Shire, it's happening throughout the Liverpool area, and it's happening down in south-west Sydney. That is what this Labor government has done to middle Australia; that's what it's done to Australian families.

They're on their knees now. But, I tell you what, they are getting very, very angry, the ones that I'm speaking to, and they are not trusting that this Prime Minister is able. Based on what's happened over two years and nine months, they have absolutely no confidence whatsoever that he is still fit to be Prime Minister and that he is fit to be the Prime Minister in our next parliament. There are many in my electorate that are saying: 'When is this federal election going to be called? We need this to be called urgently,' because they have said, 'We cannot afford, any longer, any more of this Labor government.'

We've got a situation with mortgage holders, for example. About one-third of Australians at any time are mortgage holders. The average mortgage holder in Australia has paid an additional $50,000 in repayments just to keep a roof over their head. You've got to earn close to $100,000 to have that $50,000 to pay off your mortgage because those mortgage repayments of $50,000 are, of course, net income. When I speak to small businesses, I say to them, 'The reason that you are finding it so tough at the moment is that, when mortgage holders have had to pay $50,000 in additional interest repayments, that's $50,000 they haven't had to spend in local businesses.' So as flow-on effects of this we've first of all had inflation, which has led to higher interest rates, which has then led to people having far less disposable income. That then has that immediate impact as well on our small businesses.

I've seen this in suburbs such as Sutherland in my electorate, where we have had record small retailers close. I've lived in the Sutherland Shire all of my life and, for the first time, I am seeing vacant shopfronts in Sutherland and vacant shopfronts in suburbs like Engadine. This has just not happened before. It has happened under this Prime Minister's watch. It has happened under Labor. It has happened under the Labor government. My parents are in their 80s and they said that, for their generation, if you didn't vote Liberal before Whitlam, you certainly voted Liberal after Whitlam or to get rid of Whitlam. They have said to me for a number of years that this government is Whitlam-esque in its spending. When we've had $347 billion of additional spending, that is Whitlam-esque. As a matter of fact, I think that the spending of this government far surpasses that of Whitlam, with not the policy delivery to justify that level of expenditure.

We hear things like free TAFE. What is the purpose of just throwing money at a centralised, unionised sector and then saying, 'We've solved the problem of apprentices'? They haven't. They have thrown money at TAFE only. They haven't looked at investing in the private vocational education and training sector. Instead, they've thrown it at TAFE, where there is only a 50 per cent success rate for apprentices to get through. It's only 50 per cent for plumbers and only 50 per cent for carpenters who go down the TAFE path as opposed to 80 per cent of plumbers who go through the Master Plumbers Association or 90 per cent for those who go through the National Electrical and Communications Association.

We've got small businesses closing their doors and apprentices dropping out of their trades. This is the reality of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Yet, despite all of this pain and suffering, the Prime Minister is just in denial. He offers no comfort, no solutions and no plan, except to be grossly insulting to Australians by saying things like, 'Australians have never had it better.' Never had it better? The Australians that I speak to have never had it worse. I tell you what, if the Prime Minister came to the electorate of Hughes and came down to south-west Sydney, he would well and truly hear from Australians who say, 'We have never had it worse.' That just shows a Prime Minister desperately out of touch with the people that he professes to lead.

I just want to speak very briefly as well about the blowout in costs of the NDIS. I've heard personally from constituents some dreadful stories about how they have had NDIS funding cut unexpectedly, have had their files closed. I'm talking about little Isaac, whose mum I met on the weekend. He is 10 years of age. I've gone directly to Minister Rishworth about this issue, because his funding has been completely cut, and this is occurring over and over again at a time when we are spending more and more and more on the NDIS. I fully support that we should be supporting people with disabilities so they can live their best life. But, again, this government cannot manage departments, cannot manage policy and cannot manage the country.

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