Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Hume proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government's inaction as rapidly rising mortgage interest rates are devastating Australian families and households.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday Australian households and small businesses received tough news from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, with a ninth consecutive interest rate increase. They have seen the cash rate now get up to 3.35 per cent. Of course, they are now, if they're on variable rates, paying far, far more than that. We know that 800,000 Australian households are going to be moving from fixed rates to those floating rates in the course of this year. Many small businesses are in the same boat. Sadly, the Prime Minister today failed to tell us how many, but we know a very large proportion of those businesses who have a loan will move from fixed rates to floating rates this year. For a typical family that has entered into a new mortgage of $750,000—and in south-western Sydney and, indeed, in my electorate you'll see much bigger mortgages than that—that means they will be making additional payments of $18,000 a year.

An opposition member: How much?

Eighteen thousand dollars a year. This is a very scary time for many of those households, because they entered into these mortgages expecting that they were going to be making payments substantially smaller than that. What they all know is that, in their household budgets, something has to give. Are they going to do more overtime, which will mean they won't be able to pick up the kids from school? Are they going to take another job, a second job, which will mean, again, less family time, less time with friends and loved ones? Are they going to have to drop their family holiday this year? These are tough decisions for Australian households, and decisions that they didn't anticipate having to make, but that is the reality of the situation that we have right now.

We haven't seen interest rates at this level since 2012. And in 2012 Labor was in government.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who was in government in 2012?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor was in government. You always pay more under Labor. Back in 2012 and early 2013, we saw high interest rates, and then, for nine years, we saw lower interest rates. Then, right on cue, Labor is back, and interest rates go up.

Government members interjecting—

They're over there looking for all the excuses. There are all the excuses, but the reality is: this is what happens, and it happens every time.

We know that the Reserve Bank is independent and it has to make independent decisions, although we did have the member for Whitlam out jawboning the Reserve Bank, telling them what to do. But the terrible news—and this is terrible news for Australian households—is that the governor told us yesterday, in his statement, that multiple rises are yet to come. Despite the jawboning from the member for Whitlam, multiple rises are yet to come. If you look at the bond market, which prices mortgage rates, as of yesterday afternoon it is expected that the cash rate will go to 3.9 per cent in July this year. That's where the market is at, and any amount of jawboning from the government is not going to change that being where the market is.

You would have thought, given those circumstances, given the pain that Australians are feeling, that this would be a priority for the government. You would have thought that. Australian households are hurting. It's not just households who have got a mortgage; it's also all those aspirational renters out there. When we look amongst the suburbs and towns in our electorates, we see family after family, Australian after Australian, who want to buy a house, but, when interest rates are going like that, they simply can't do it. On top of that, we know small businesses have had to borrow to get through COVID. They borrowed to build their businesses, to employ people and to invest in the equipment that they need. They too are feeling the pain of these rising interest rates, and they want to see a government that cares, a government that makes this a top priority.

Well, what have we seen in recent weeks? We've seen a prime minister who does press conferences where he wants to talk about anything except the cost of living and rising interest rates. He'll talk about anything, except he doesn't want to make the top priority—the first thing he leads out with—in his press conferences the real pain that Australians are feeling. He doesn't want to talk about that.

But it gets worse than that. That's bad, but it gets worse, because we have a treasurer who spent the summer writing a 6,000-word ideological essay. You know, Australians want the priority of the government to be their priorities, not the remaking of capitalism, not a 6,000-word ideological essay—and it's had a lot of reviews. I think the biggest and most important review is the review from the Australian people who say, 'We care about the rising cost of living and rising interest rates.'

But there have been other reviews, and I want to talk about a couple of them. The economist Steven Hamilton called the essay 'an incoherent assortment of kumbaya capitalist thought bubbles'. That is not what Australians need when they're facing serious cost-of-living pressures. That was after having written:

I don't recall ever having read so many words—almost 6000—that contained so little. No clear proposition, no coherent framework for thinking about the world, no tangible plan of action.

Well, Australians want a tangible plan of action.

In the AFR editorial in 29 January we read that the Treasurer's essay 'harks back to an essentially old model of more government intervention and higher taxes'. We know that's what's coming. At a time when making ends meet is a top priority for the Australian people, we have a government that we know is working out how to tax them more. The AFR reported that an Australian business leader said that the idea of rewriting the rules of capitalism is absolutely preposterous.

Now, this is another one. Crikey—I don't normally read it—gave this assessment:

The treasurer's unimpressive essay is an announcement of a strategy of political control as much as it is of economic planning.

Adam Creighton, in the Australian, said:

The Treasurer's rambling missive, where it is coherent—

I struggled with that bit—

is excessively gloomy and wrongly blames economic problems on the non-existent bogeyman of "neoliberalism" …

We've heard from many industry groups on this as well. Ai Group's Innes Willox warned against sleepwalking into being a quasi-command economy. Simon Crean, the former Labor Party leader, who was trying to be gentle—he was on his side, of course—said: 'It hasn't got a lot of details.'

The reality is that this government has done all the wrong things to put downward pressure on interest rates and inflation. We do have an independent Reserve Bank, but much of what the government does affects what the Reserve Bank does. There are three things in particular that I've seen them do that are just extraordinary in this context of the rising cost of living and rising interest rates.

The first is an industrial relations initiative which is only going to exacerbate the price-wage spiral. We all want to see higher real wages. Everyone in this parliament wants to see higher real wages—of course we do—but what we don't need is more inflation that reduces real wages. That's what we don't want to see. We don't want to see a toxic industrial relations environment. I'm old enough to have lived through the last time we had that, and there were sensible people on the other side of the chamber, in Labor, who saw the need to move towards a more enterprise driven industrial relations environment, and that meant moving away from industrywide bargaining.

Second, we've seen a ham-fisted energy policy where they themselves have refused to recommit to the goal they set before the last election of reducing electricity prices. They know they've got to give up on that. They know that they are driving up electricity prices, and that is only going to make inflation worse.

Thirdly, we've got a government who, for the first time since the Charter of Budget Honesty came into place, have dropped, explicitly, the goal of a balanced budget. They've dropped it. It's gone. Even Wayne Swan had that goal, but not the current treasurer. This government has not made the cost of living and putting downward pressure on interest rates a priority. (Time expired)

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's amazing to see what this opposition has chosen to do in public and what it chooses to do in private. In private, the now-shadow Treasurer chose to hide a 20 per cent increase in electricity prices from the people of Australia in the middle of an election. In private, those opposite allowed the member for Cook to sign himself into a number of secret ministries, including the Treasury portfolio. But then, publicly, when they came here in December, they chose to vote against lower power bills and power bill relief for Australian families. It is amazing that they would have chosen not to act when asked in this place: 'Do you want to help families with power-bill relief?' They chose to vote no. But they still have the confidence, and I admire the confidence of the shadow Treasurer, I really do, to come in here and lecture us about cost-of-living relief.

This group—a political party, the Liberal Party, the National Party—have an amazing ability, bizarrely, to sometimes speak the truth in government. It is not often, but sometimes they do. It was just less than a year ago that we had Senator Birmingham telling us exactly how the economy works. He said, 'The Reserve Bank will do what it thinks is best in accordance with its independent charter.' Of course, interest rates have always been going to normalise from their abnormally historic lows. This shows that what we seeing from those opposite is not just an attempt to politicise the decisions of the independent Reserve Bank but also their choice to quote from a very limited scope of history.

So often we hear from those opposite about how their political hero John Howard was a great economic manager. What they always forget to remind the Australian people, and I can see why, is which party and which Treasurer delivered the highest ever interest rates to the Australian people. We know it was, in fact, the Liberal Party. In April 1982 we had an interest rate of 21.4 per cent under Treasurer John Howard. The opposition have delivered two things when they've been in government. First, they delivered the highest ever interest rate paid by the Australian people, that 21.4 per cent under Treasurer Howard, and, second, they left the Australian people with the largest ever debt. Those opposite left $1 trillion of debt on their way out the door. They left the Australian people with a secret power bill increase of 20 per cent and $1 trillion of debt to pay off.

It's just phenomenal that they also now have a leader of the opposition who is running around saying how much he enjoys being in opposition. I'm sure that was great news to so many on the opposition benches, hearing the opposition leader say, 'The joy of being the opposition leader is that I'm not in government.' That must be a great encouragement for those trying to hang onto their seats, for those who might one day aspire to be a minister and for those who might one day gain a seat for the Liberal Party or the National Party. The Leader of the Opposition tells us that we've got to see him smile a little bit more. Now that I know what makes him smile, that is quite odd. But he does say, 'The joy of being the opposition leader is that I'm not in government.' I guess it's a case of 'find a job you love, and you'll have it for life'.

When the opposition leader talked about interest rates on 3 May 2022, he was able to be very upfront and honest with the Australian people. He said: 'It's a reality of a world where there's inflation. I think Australians understand that there's a lot of pressure—upward pressure—on interest rates at the moment.' Again, we got honesty back in the day, but now we get—the shadow Treasurer is not here anymore I was going to talk about him to his face; instead, I'll talk about him in his absence. I'm sure his colleagues will pass it on. He actually issued a press release last year in opposition, where he said:

The answer to addressing rising inflation … it's to have sensible fiscal and monetary policy driven by a focused, independent Reserve Bank.

He didn't quite say that again today, did he? He didn't quite outline the same sober, calm economic policies. We got a lecture at another time from the now shadow Treasurer telling us that the Albanese government needed to show constraint on expenditure. If only he'd given that lecture when he was in the party room and the cabinet of the Morrison, Turnbull and Abbott governments, we wouldn't have that trillion dollars of debt—that beautiful gift that gets more and more expensive to service because the former government chose to leave so much debt behind and so little plan on how to pay for it.

I admire the shape-shifting, form-changing skills and capabilities of the opposition because today they've undergone their biggest transformation yet. It used to be the party of free enterprise. It used to be the party—they'd claim—of low taxes, even though they've always taxed higher than the governments that came before them. But today we got the best claim of all—my favourite so far—which is the so-called party of the Australian working class, according to the Leader of the Opposition. The party of the Australian working class. The party of WorkChoices is the party of this Australian working class. The party that tried to force Medicare co-payments is the party of the working class. The party that went to the last election opposing an increase to the minimum wage is the party of the working class.

The member for Cook, the marketer and chief, may have moved on. I'm pleased to see the leadership style of all marketing and no policy has continued under this opposition. I mentioned the member for Cook. When the member for Cook was the secret treasurer commenting on interest rates on 3 May last year, on the question of interest rates, the secret treasurer and public Prime Minister said, 'In the last 12 months, the IMF has more than doubled their estimates of forecasts this year on inflation to well over seven per cent for this year from about the mid threes.' That has changed massively, and we all know the reasons why. He said, 'We saw a bit of that in the last inflation date, and I expect we'll see a bit more,' when he was asked whether we would see more interest rate increases.

It's important to put all of that on the record because under all of this is a simple fact: we have a huge inflation challenge and families are doing it tough. We have to be realistic about what we can do. I want to talk about what we can do. I note that the Prime Minister was in Jagajaga the other week talking about our plans to make child care more affordable for 1.2 million Australian families. I know that in the electorate of Bean, that's going to benefit the families who send their children to some 47 early childhood education care centres.

When we talk about what we can do when it comes to making education more affordable, it's this government that's introduced fee-free TAFE. In the electorate of Hasluck, there will be more affordable TAFE for 18,000 Western Australians, including at Midland TAFE. We're trying to get through parliament the National Reconstruction Fund. This was something that was taken to the election and the Australian people endorsed it. We were completely open about our intention. We know that it will give people good, secure Australian jobs that we need to secure our economy and provide the tax base for the future. For some reason, which is yet to be explained, the coalition has chosen to vote against that.

There's so much more this government is doing to make sure we act in a responsible way on the cost-of-living pressures people face. We backed a minimum wage increase. We went to the election saying we would do it. We wrote to the Fair Work Commission asking for it, and it has been delivered. We have introduced legislation for cheaper, cleaner energy. We have said that the May budget will have bill relief for families, which was opposed by those opposite. We are going to deliver cheaper child care—an idea that the then Leader of the Opposition put out almost three years ago. It was there for them to grab when they were in government and they chose not to. We're delivering cheaper medicines. At $12.50 per script, it is cheaper for families. We are delivering fee-free TAFE, expanding paid parental leave, building more affordable homes and ensuring that pensions increase in line with inflation. This is the responsible cost-of-living relief Australians expect from a responsible government.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

T () (): Nine months in government and nine consecutive interest rate rises—be in no doubt that you will always pay more under the Labor Party. Day after day, the Prime Minister wants to talk about everything except the cost-of-living crisis—Labor's cost-of-living crisis. It is the No. 1 issue facing Australians today. In relation to my electorate on the Gold Coast, if I look at Melbourne based firm Digital Finance Analytics, their data reveals that the number of Gold Coasters facing mortgage stress has increased by 1,500 people since November, with 25,404 now struggling to make their repayments. The postcodes with the highest proportion of struggling homeowners are predominantly in my electorate: postcodes 4216 to 4209, including Coomera and Pimpama.

This is a serious issue that requires a concerted focus from this government and a focus that, frankly, we're not seeing. This government has got to stop spending. It has got to stop $50 billion of off balance sheet expenditure. The Reserve Bank is seeking to take money out of the system by raising interest rates, and what is this government doing? It is recklessly spending. Families, including those on double incomes are struggling to make ends meet and they are having to make tough calls to keep their homes, including 25,404 homes in my electorate. They're taking second jobs, they're working overtime and they're giving up on holidays. Yet what does this government do? What does this government prioritise?

In fact, the very first economic decision of this government—the first decision taken by Treasury ministers—wasn't to deal with inflation or to deal with the cost of living. It was, as a statement of fact, to water down transparency as to what super funds report in relation to their funding and their slush fund payments. We'll deal with that in the Senate this afternoon, but that was the very first act of this government's Treasury. That was the most important thing the Labor government thought they had to do: to take away transparency of $40 million of payments from super funds to union movements. That was the priority. That's a statement of fact.

Let's wait and see what the Senate does this afternoon, because this morning the entire crossbench and the Greens voted against this lonely, pathetic government as they stood up and tried to block transparency. So let's not have the government walk in here and tell us that they are concerned about cost of living when the very first action of their Treasury ministers was to water down transparency. Those opposite can hide under any number of rocks, but they can't hide from that decision. After nine sordid months of hiding, it will catch up on those opposite. Hardworking Australians are paying more and more for their mortgages while this government hides, without transparency, because the government cannot get its priorities right. As they make industrial relations less flexible and make it harder for companies to employ Australians, we're seeing mortgages of $750,000 and the mortgage holders paying an extra $16,000 a year in repayments. Without an economic plan from this government, the Reserve Bank is having to do all the heavy lifting, and, as the Reserve Bank governor said yesterday, further rate increases are on the rise to get consumption down and to get inflation down. Without an economic plan from those opposite, hardworking families and struggling businesses will pay the highest price.

But I will give one recommendation to the government. Over 50 days ago, Michelle Levy issued her report on how to make it easier for Australians to get financial advice. This government, in opposition, used to scream at the previous government about releasing reports. 'The Hayne royal commission report,' they said, 'must be released immediately.' We took 2½ days over the weekend to look at it. This government has had 50 days on the Levy report. It was released today. The government should have stood up and said, 'We're going to implement all the recommendations.' What did they do? They said they were going to have a consultation on the consultation they just had. Pathetic. Agree to every single recommendation of the Levy report. It will help Australians. It will assist them in getting advice. It will at least be the start of an economic plan. (Time expired)

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It does feel rich to stand up here and debate a matter of public importance from the other side which talks about inaction, because, of course, that's what we saw from the coalition for almost a decade when they were in government. As much they are involved as revisionist history and forgetting what happened in the past, what they can't forget is that when they were in the government benches, what happened was nothing. What happened was that this country was left to drift. They were not listening to the concerns of the Australian people. They certainly were not delivering support and relief to families and households. Those opposite who get up here with their new version of what happened were actually asleep at the wheel when they could have done something about it.

On the odd occasion when they actually did wake up and think, 'Hold on, we're in government; we have those levers of power and there are things we might be able to do,' what they tried to do made things worse for the Australian community. Their ideas were things like undermining Medicare, the public health system we all rely on. It is such a big factor in whether Australians feel like they are supported and whether they feel like they can keep their family and household budgets under control. Those opposite did not support Medicare. They put their ideological opposition to public health care ahead of the needs of Australian households and Australian families. We know they opposed wage rises over that near decade in government—in fact, we know it was a deliberate design policy of the system. We know that they left us with $1 trillion of debt and nothing to see for it.

After almost a decade of inaction, it is, as I said, rich, hypocritical—there are many words I could reach for at this point—for them to come in here, after eight months of this side being in government, to speak about inaction. The shadow Treasurer and the member for Fadden bring some very recently found concerns. In fact, the member for Fadden decided to take this debate into the realm of transparency. Apparently transparency is something that those on the other side are now very passionate about. I genuinely welcome this because, again, it is not something that we experienced much in this place over the previous term when I was in this parliament; certainly not over the previous near decade when those opposite were in power. I do wonder whether part of these issues we face, part of this mess in the economic space that we are trying to clean up as a government, was due to that lack of transparency on the other side. Maybe it was because the previous Treasurer did not realise that, in fact, he had a shadow Treasurer in the member for Cook, that nothing was happening, that there was drift and denial and inaction. There certainly was not transparency.

Our government is different. We are upfront with the Australian people about these being challenging times. We know that they are challenging times. We know that Australian families do need support, and we are looking to do that. We are delivering cheaper child care, cheaper medicines and direct energy bill relief. We are making it cheaper for people to go to TAFE, with fee-free TAFE. We are putting in place our National Reconstruction Fund to get jobs and manufacturing going in this country again. Of course we are committed. We have done work to get wages moving again. All of these have a direct impact on Australian families and Australian households. We had the Prime Minister visit my electorate just last week to talk with families in Macleod directly about what is going on with them and about the relief we will deliver through our cheaper childcare plan. That will be direct assistance that supports so many Australian families.

We know there is a lot to be done. You don't get through a decade of inaction and mismanagement in nine months. You just don't. We're upfront with the Australian people about this being a big job, but on this side of the House we are adults who are up to the big job. We are going to continue to behave in a responsible way to support Australian families, to support Australian households with cost-of-living relief at a very challenging time and to clean up the mess we've been left by those on the other side.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This MPI today, moved by the member for Hume, the shadow Treasurer, is on the government's inaction as rapidly rising mortgage interest rates are devastating Australian families and households. Yesterday it was announced that mortgages would see their ninth consecutive rise and the seventh rise under the Albanese Labor government.

Australian homeowners are being crippled not just by rising interest rates and higher mortgage costs under Labor but also at the supermarket and at the bowser with petrol and diesel. The Albanese government failed to extend the discounts that the coalition government gave to people right around this country. Electricity prices are rising despite Prime Minister Albanese saying that he would cut electricity prices by $275. They've gone up, up and up. Now, gas bills and rent are huge.

What did Labor say about interest rates prior to the election? Right here, in my hand, I have Prime Minister Albanese's speech at the Australian Labor Party's federal election campaign launch in 2022 in the city of Perth.

The member for Perth was there; he might remember. Prime Minister Albanese said:

Thank you, Mark, for that kind introduction—

obviously speaking to the Premier—

and for all you've done to keep WA safe—

during COVID. You might have thought he'd thank the member for Cook for that as well, for the 700,000 jobs we saved during COVID, but no. He thanked Mark and he went on. In part of that speech—

Government members interjecting—

These members opposite all got elected in 2022. This is what the Prime Minister said:

Labor has real, lasting plans for cheaper electricity—

that hasn't happened—

Cheaper child care—

right. Okay. Even if I give you that one—

Cheaper mortgages.

'Cheaper mortgages', said Prime Minister Albanese. There you go.

That's not what the Australian people thought. 'Cheaper mortgages' is pretty clear.

On 1 May, this is what the Prime Minister said to Australians during the election campaign: 'We'll lower your mortgages.' This is what the Labor candidate in Petrie, his candidate in my seat, said: 'Queenslanders are getting smashed by the cost of living. We can't afford another three years of the member for Cook.' He named him. 'Queensland homeowners face having to find almost $400 a month', he complained, 'of mortgage repayments by Christmas, on average.' That's what Prime Minister Albanese's candidate said: $400 a month. We're now at $1,400 a month—not $400 a month; $1,400 a month. If the candidate for Petrie thought it was bad under the coalition government, what does he think about it now under the Albanese government?

I can tell you that mortgage increases have tripled. In some cases they are over $2,000 a month. The Prime Minister was being a bit cute in saying that he would lower mortgage and electricity costs, when neither of these things have happened. The Labor candidate also promised that mortgage costs would be lower under a Labor government than under a coalition government. The reality, for those in the gallery, is that mortgages have increased seven times since this government came to power.

The impact of that is very real for people in my electorate like Damien in Griffin: $1,000 a month extra. Another $12,000 a year. He says he's paid an extra $460 per fortnight, or $12,000 a year. Damien says, 'It's becoming unsustainable, and action needs to take place to stabilise lower rates.' Quinton in Murrumba Downs says, 'I'm a first homebuyer, and my repayments since Labor have come in are $1,700 a month extra, or $20,400 per year.' In gross wages that's $30,000 a year, all under the Albanese government. This MPI around the government's inaction as rapidly rising mortgage interest rates are devastating Australian families and households is 100 per cent true.

It's not just mortgages; it's also people renting. This morning I spoke to Daryl Margetts, from Scarborough, who's worried about his grandson Daniel, who lives in Clontarf, whose rent has gone up $50 a week. This is really important because, as interest rates rise, people need to be able to put up the rent. Thankfully, they still have negative gearing. If it was up to the member for Maribyrnong or the members for Grayndler, Franklin or Rankin, that all would've went in 2019 and people would not have been able to write off the losses. Shame on the Albanese government!

David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition oversaw a decade of wasted opportunities and misguided priorities that left with Australia with falling real wages, cost-of-living pressures and a trillion dollars of debt without an economic dividend to show for it. They arrogantly believed they were solving this by simply being in power. They were the performing statue of politics—largely doing nothing but expecting applause for imperceptible movement. What they have to show for nearly a decade of power is leaving us with the worst cost-of-living crisis this nation has ever faced.

The Albanese government has been working overtime to deliver for hardworking Australian families. We've worked overtime because those opposite sat in government for nine years and did nothing. They barely moved. Australians understand we didn't create these challenges but they elected us to take responsibility for addressing them, and we are.

The government is tackling this cost-of-living crisis in a range of ways. We have laid the groundwork to get wages moving. We have introduced cost-of-living measures to support people with the cost of medicine and child care. We are working on fixing skilled labour shortages as well as growing the economy the right way, making us more resistant against future shocks. The government knows households are feeling the pressure. That's why our plan has been to provide targeted relief to households and to ensure that, through government programs and government spending, we aren't making a bad situation worse—no colour coding here!

One of the very first acts of the Albanese government was to successfully argue for the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation—an outcome which helped 2.7 million Australians and we know was against the architectural beliefs of those opposite. But what else have we already done to address cost-of-living pressures for households? On 1 January millions of Australians saw a 29 per cent drop in their PBS prescriptions, with the maximum PBS co-payment dropping from $42.50 to $30. For the first time in the 75-year history of the PBS, the co-payment for general scripts has fallen. For a family relying on two or three medications, this can put as much as $450 back into their household budget.

From 1 July this year more than a million families across the country will be able to access more affordable early childhood education. In my electorate of Bean alone, 6,600 families will be better off. Additionally, the childhood education subsidy for families earning $80,000 or less will increase to 90 per cent. These changes will provide household budget relief for families struggling with the cost-of-living.

Let's also talk about the important work this government is doing to fix the skill shortage. In the ACT students will be able to access fee-free courses at the Canberra Institute of Technology in my electorate, as the Albanese government and the ACT government signed a landmark 12-month skills agreement to address the current skill shortage. The agreement will inject more than $16.5 million into the ACT skills and training sector, with immediate support for over 2½ thousand fee-free TAFE places at the CIT this year.

What exactly was the former government's plan heading into the election? It certainly wasn't to have a tailored response to address the cause of this cost-of-living crisis. It wasn't to implement policies that will address labour supply. It wasn't to address expenses such as cheaper medicine or to put downward pressure on childcare fees. It clearly wasn't to lift wages. What's their plan now? To block every proposal to reduce cost-of-living pressures on families. Those opposite claim to be superior economic managers, yet all they can manage to say is no. The economy we inherited was defined by a decade of stagnant wages, flatlining productivity, weak business investment, skill shortages and energy chaos. That doesn't sound like superior economic management to me, and it was clear at the last election that the Australian people thought likewise.

The next budget will build on the strong work that we've already done, including assistance with energy bills, higher wages for aged-care workers and investments in the economy. We've hit the ground running; 2023 is a year to be optimistic about. Households are already seeing real and practical positive change, and Australian families are finally witnessing a government that doesn't hold them in contempt.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's very easy in this place to get caught up in the tit-for-tat politics and the backwards-and-forwards blame game. However, what I want to do this afternoon is quickly highlight the calls that I receive and the visits that I have from my small businesses and my farms across my electorate, the north-west, the west coast and King Island in Tasmania. At the moment, they are doing it very tough. For many of the small businesses, this death by a thousand cuts adds up very slowly. It's not until the end of the business quarter that those cumulative effects start to become a reality for most small-business owners. I'm not talking big small businesses; I'm talking sole traders and partnerships. I'm talking mum-and-dad businesses. I'm talking farmers, small manufacturers and general trade jobs that are spread right across my electorate.

At the end of the Bass they're concerned. Their main concern is the cost of going about their business and servicing their short-term finance obligations. As well as that, many are locked into rates for mortgages and longer term capital that will come off in the next quarter or the next six months. That means that they're now on unstable territory; on uncharted ground. The trepidation that they have is affecting their business confidence. Business confidence is key when it comes to small business; the way in which you operate and the way in which you interrogate the business decisions in front of you.

Businesses have multiple layers when it comes to these complexities at the moment. The first one, of course, is interest rates. The trend is that interest rates are rising—in fact, we've seen eight consecutive rises since this government has held office, and more will follow. When it comes to the cost of doing business, the cost of capital and the surety of capital: as interest rates go up, so to do the complexities around securing that capital and making that investment when you haven't got the over-the-horizon market indicators or the market signal in order to repay a dividend back into that capital. That's the second thing.

Couple those with an added increase in energy costs. On my own farm I've got irrigators going 24/7 at the moment. The energy costs of most irrigators on the north-west coast have more than tripled this season—again, eating into their bottom line but not affecting the price that they're paid for their produce. That has not been adjusted, so they've got to wear that cost. When you start talking about the harvest season and tractors, a reasonable sized tractor consumes 400 to 500 litres of fuel a day. On King Island, for instance, the price today is over $2.50 a litre for diesel fuel on the farm. There is talk. They're scared about that diesel primary production rebate being taken away from them. I can't add up the number of calls I've received over that particular issue.

When it comes to the introduction of increased complexity in IR legislation, red tape and green tape, these are mum-and-dad businesses that can't afford to have a separate person or to subcontract this. They've got to do it themselves. When mum or dad take their eyes away from that small business, it means that half of that business has stopped being effective—again, an added impost on our small businesses. When you start talking about insurance premiums for primary production, there has been an incredible increase. The cost of premiums has almost quadrupled in the last 12 months. The labour force issues and the price businesses have to pay in order to secure a permanent labour force are incredible. The freight costs backwards and forwards across that expensive piece of water that is Bass Strait—and add in the stevedoring costs and charges—are an impost on small business.

The market signals aren't there. The fight between the Reserve Bank and the government causes trepidation when it comes to securing the long-term, over-the-horizon market indicators. Debt serviceability, unsurety, the unwillingness for neighbouring or co-joined businesses in securing that capital and working together—it's all unsure. I can't help but agree with them. The lack of detail, forethought and future from this government is only exacerbating this issue.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition may have had a change of leadership, but their propensity to reach for the vacuous headline completely devoid of substantive policy has not changed one iota. Unfortunately, the answer isn't as simple as a vacuous headline, and that's just it. Labor is committed to doing the hard work required because we care about anyone doing it tough. By contrast, the coalition's record is wholly one of opposing cost-of-living relief for all Australians. When we said we'd support a $1-an-hour wage rise for our lowest paid workers, the coalition said no. When we capped gas prices to help rein in energy prices, the coalition said no. And when we reformed industrial relations to fix a broken bargaining system, the coalition said no.

Let's cast our minds back. The paint was not even dry on the new Prime Minister's door when, on 3 June 2022, the new Albanese government recommended to the Fair Work Commission that the real wages of the lowest paid workers should not go backwards. He was already taking real and tangible steps to help Australian workers with their cost-of-living challenges. That was responsible action. Those opposite should heed the words of the Business Council of Australia, which said the following of our responsible action to get wages moving again:

A functioning enterprise bargaining system will lift productivity so employers can share the dividends of better performing workplaces with their teams through higher wages and better conditions.

Less obstruction, more construction, from those opposite—this government hit the ground running in May last year and has been acting responsibly to assist households in addressing cost-of-living challenges.

Let's consider our responsible action on energy. Australians have faced serious challenges caused partly by the opposition's nine-year-long serial failure to land an energy policy. We took action. Parliament was recalled in December and passed the gas market legislation, which will save households money on their energy bills. What was the position of the member for Hume on that bill? He opposed it. He voted against it. He opposed helping Australian families faced with rising energy bills and now stands here pretending—he's not here, in fact, but when he is here he pretends he wants to help those people at their kitchen tables.

We are taking responsible action on education and training. Fewer Australians will need to make hard choices about whether they can afford to engage in much-needed education and training to skill up for jobs today and for the jobs of the future, because we have announced 20,000 new university places and 180,000 fee-free TAFE places.

Responsible action on health: we have made pharmaceuticals and other health products cheaper through the PBS. Last October, I had a very illuminating conversation with a young man named Jake back in Hasluck. Jake has type 1 diabetes. He requires insulin monitoring products and up to three other prescriptions per month for associated health issues. Labor's policy to subsidise constant glucose monitoring products and to cut the maximum cost of PBS medication will save Jake hundreds of dollars a month, thousands of dollars per year, and there are a lot of Jakes out there who are a lot better off today. It is good policy.

We are taking responsible action on housing. We will soon have the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which will fund social housing well into the future and take pressure off the market. That comes after a lost decade of minimal intervention and investment in social and affordable housing. Members opposite are happy to try to take political advantage of pressures in housing, but should they not be required to explain to their electorates and to my electorate where their investments were in 2013, where their investments were in 2014, 2015 and 2016? Where were your housing investments in 2017 and 2018? What about 2019? Where were you housing investments in 2020 and 2021? What about up to May 2022?

Well, I can tell the member for Hume that housing doesn't happen overnight. We needed that investment back then, and we need it today. Thankfully, Labor is taking a great deal of pressure off the market now. Ultimately, that will lead to a reduction in pressure on mortgages and rents because there'll be more availability. (Time expired)

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I might just start by making sure everyone understands what growth in real wages mean, because members of the government have been perhaps working off some old talking points, and I'd advise the whips office to recirculate the latest circumstance. You see, when inflation is at 7.8 per cent and wages growth is at 3.1 per cent, real wages are going backwards—just so you know what all that means.

Now, I concede that the December quarter wages growth has not been published yet. You might get lucky and wages growth might increase from 3.1 per cent to 7.9 per cent in one quarter and, if that occurs, yes, we will have real wages growth in our economy. If that herculean task is not performed, that means that right now and consistently since this government came to power real wages have been going backwards. So I think the government would benefit from reconsidering the number of times they've put on the record both in this House and in media interviews how spectacular their reforms have been in getting real wages moving, because they are going backwards at the moment, and my prediction from the hardworking people of this country is that we won't be seeing real wages growth when the December figure is released nor for many quarters into the future, because, regrettably, under this government, people's real wages and their wealth are going backwards. Why? It is because inflation is running at 7.8 per cent.

For those who understand inflation, it is the destruction of wealth. That is what inflation is. Inflation takes the value of something and decreases it. So, when inflation is running at 7.8 per cent, that means that the wealth of Australians is going backwards, and that hits the lowest income people in our economy the hardest, particularly retired people and people on fixed incomes. For people who provisioned for their retirement, believing that they had saved enough money to fund that retirement, when inflation is at 7.8 per cent and interest rates are much lower than that but going up, their wealth is going backwards, and that is really hurting the most vulnerable people in our community.

Now, mortgages are going up. Unfortunately, yesterday we had the ninth increase in interest rates, and what that means is that, for people who own a home and owe the bank money, when they refinance their mortgages, if they're not on a variable rate, those mortgages will go up dramatically. Property prices are also falling in nominal terms. In real terms, they're decreasing even more, because, of course, you've got to add inflation to the nominal reduction in house prices. So, in some markets, the value of your home has gone down by nearly 20 per cent while, at the same time, your mortgage repayments have doubled.

Real wages are going backwards and, of course, energy prices are the highest increasing household bill in the household budget. People are really struggling. The government had an opportunity to come in here and explain what they are going to do to address these facts and the factual situation. Instead, they talked about the previous government. Now, they're welcome to do that. They're welcome to forgo the opportunity to say what they are actually going to do to address these really significant, painful impacts on household budgets, particularly for the most vulnerable people in our society.

If you forgo the opportunity to point out how you're going to fix those challenges, then you're conceding that they will be continuing under your government. And that would be absolutely disgusting and disgraceful. If you're happy to allow real wages to deteriorate, to allow mortgages to go up and to allow the cost of living to spiral, and have no plan for it except to talk about the previous government, then a lot of the people in this country would be saying it's time for a new government. If you are so out of touch you don't understand how tough it is for people as their real wages are going down, their mortgages are going up, their wealth is decreasing and inflation is out of control, and your answer to those things is to talk about the last government, then that is your prerogative. However, the people of this country will reward you very poorly at the ballot box if you continue to ignore the serious and significant challenges that they are dealing with every day, including the increases to their household budgets.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've just listened to 30 minutes of speeches from members opposite with respect to the motion before us, and I have not heard one single suggestion as to what else the government could and should be doing to address their so-called concern about the cost-of-living increases on families and the rising interest rates—not one! Whilst I accept that you're not in government, if you want to stand up and tell the Australian people that there are some real concerns out there, you might at least offer some alternative suggestions that we might want to consider as a parliament. But I didn't hear a single one.

The member for Sturt finished off by saying that if the best we can do is blame the previous government, then we should talk about what this government has been doing. I'll talk about what this government has been doing, but I'll also say this: the Australian people are smart enough to understand that part of the reason that we're in the mess we're in, in terms of the issues they raised in the course of this debate, is because of the incompetence of the previous coalition government who for 10 years did nothing to address what were foreseeable situations—including rising interest rates, which began under their watch. You saw it coming just like you saw the increase in energy prices coming, but instead of doing anything when you got that last report about energy prices just before the election you tried to sweep it under the carpet because you knew the buck stopped with your side of politics but you weren't prepared to be honest with the Australian people.

The Australian people understand that there are many contributing factors to the cost-of-living pressures that they are facing. They also understand that many of those pressures are global and beyond the control of this country and, quite frankly, our government and the previous government. But they also understand that when the Morrison government was in office they could have done something about it and they didn't. We are now facing the situation that we do because of that.

Unlike the last coalition government, which did nothing, this government is actually getting on with the job of responding, and it's done that from day one. Let me just go through some of the issues that we have tried to address from the moment we were elected to government. We successfully argued, almost on day one, for a Fair Work Commission minimum wage increase in line with inflation—something that those members opposite continuously opposed. We've introduced legislation that will drive up investment in cleaner and cheaper energy, putting downward pressure on power prices. The May budget will include direct energy bill relief for households and businesses. We are delivering on cheaper child care. In my own electorate, that means some 7,000 families will be better off. That is money that will help them deal with the cost-of-living increases that those members speak about. We are delivering 180,000 fee-free TAFE places. If that's not helping families, what is? We're expanding paid parental leave. When it comes to pensions, allowances and rent assistance, we have also increased those in line with inflation. We introduced a pensioner work bonus so that older Australians could keep more of what they earn.

We're also rebuilding trade relationships with countries right around the world. Can I tell you—with respect to that issue alone—in my state of South Australia the wine industry was decimated because of the actions of the previous government. It still hasn't recovered, and it's only because of the efforts of this government that things are starting to look a little bit better for the wine industry. We're also rebuilding manufacturing, which, as we heard in question time today, was again destroyed by the coalition government when they closed down GMH, because that had a ripple effect right through the manufacturing sector of South Australia. So, to the member for Sturt and others who say, 'What are we doing?', I suggest they have a close look at what we're doing, because this government, from day one, has started to do things. The problem is that, every time we bring legislation into this House, every initiative that we have brought into this House has, quite frankly, been opposed by those opposite.

I'll finish on this matter given that housing is such a big issue. Again, time does not permit me to go into the initiatives that this government is taking with respect to housing. But, only this morning the Property Council of Australia released their report entitled A stark reality. The Minister for Housing was there and delivered a response on behalf of the government. The Property Council of Australia complimented the minister and the government for the work that this government is doing on trying to rebuild the housing industry in this country and bringing into the market much more social and affordable housing. This government is acting, and this motion, quite frankly, is a joke.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has concluded.