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

It's always great to follow the member for Hawke. It gives me an opportunity to fact-check some of the claims that he makes. Let's start with the first one, that inflation peaked under the former coalition government. He might want to check the ABS data. It would show that it actually peaked at 7.8 per cent in the December 2022 quarter. Last time I checked, the Albanese Labor government was in power in December 2022. Maybe fact-check that comment, Member for Hawke.

He also said that they inherited $1 trillion of debt. The problem with that is there are budget papers and—I've said this to you before, so you know this—$517 billion was the actual number in the budget papers. Thirty-one per cent of that was under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, which was a great success for the Australian people! When we're talking about auditions, the member for Parramatta wouldn't get those facts wrong. He would make sure that those numbers were right, because he's ready to go if the Treasurer makes those mistakes.

This Treasurer and this Prime Minister have delivered a budget in their true tradition. It is classic spin that sounds impressive with their cost-of-living plan—it's a headline—but it delivers nothing for the Australian people. It delivers 70c a day in 15 months. Congratulations to all those community members in Hawke that are struggling. You'll get 70c back in 15 months time. That'll help with the grocery bills this week. That'll help with the petrol when you have to fill up the car this week—70c a day in 15 months.

When the Treasurer and those opposite continue the political spin about how great the Australian people have it, how we've never had it better and everything they're doing, they like to give these big numbers about tax cuts and what they've supposedly done, but they always leave one number out. They never put one number into their calculations. They don't include the low- and middle-income offset that they let lapse under their watch—the $1,500 that the Australian people received in one go, in one hit, when they put in their tax return. Many people in my community and many people across the country were outraged when they didn't get that $1,500 they were expecting, because they'd received it in the previous years. We saw that this Prime Minister had the opportunity and had the ability to make sure that $1,500 in one hit made a tangible difference—a policy that was a coalition policy that the former government implemented. They could have kept that policy going, because they backflipped on the stage 3 tax cuts. 'My word is my bond'—apparently not!

They were prepared to backflip on stage 3, but they weren't prepared to backflip on the $1,500 in direct benefits to the Australian people. That says everything you want to know about this Prime Minister and this Treasurer. They've spent so long in this place that they think that spin and political headlines will make a difference for the Australian people, but they won't, because every Australian is struggling.

Discovery Church in my community—an amazing organisation that does a lot through their foodbank—had a 400 per cent increase in demand last year. That increase came from what they dubbed 'the working poor'—those that have jobs, even two jobs, and with three or four in their family needing food support. But we get told by this Prime Minister, by this Treasurer and by those opposite that we've never had it better and that the plan is working. If the Treasurer's plan worked for the last three years, I would hate to see failure, because the community members in Casey that are having to go to Discovery Church to get free food to feed their family and the people that are struggling to pay bills don't feel a soft landing. They're not feeling better today than there did three years ago when this Prime Minister promised that he could solve the cost-of-living crisis. We're not going to stand here and be lectured by those opposite who tell us that we've never had it better, that the plan is working and that we should be so lucky to have the Treasurer in control of the Treasury, making these decisions. These decisions are failing.

If he spent some time talking to people in the community, he would stop the hubris. He would stop bragging about how successful he has been, lining himself up to challenge the Prime Minister after the election, and focus on structural changes to help the Australian people in this cost-of-living crisis, because he's failed time and time again. (Time expired)

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