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

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

The Prime Minister's failure to address rising mortgage costs and rising power bills.

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—

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has undoubtedly failed to address rising mortgage costs and rising power bills. I am yet to see in this chamber a more slippery or pathetic performance from a Prime Minister in my entire time here. The man is incapable of answering a straight question with a straight answer. The truth, what the Prime Minister really believes, slipped out a couple of weeks ago. It slipped out. It was not in scripted remarks. It wasn't in a note handed to him by an adviser. It wasn't in some sort of whispered advice from the Treasurer, which often happens when the Prime Minister doesn't know a particular number, which is very regular. What the Prime Minister said was, 'It's been a pretty good 10 months.'

Day after day, we ask the Prime Minister questions about the cost-of-living issues being faced by Australians every single day. There's no one in this chamber, nobody, who would not be hearing a cavalcade of messages from people in their electorate highlighting what those pressures are. We keep asking question after question of the Prime Minister just to see if there's any acknowledgement from him, any understanding from him, that Australians now, 10 months after his election as Prime Minister, are doing it so much tougher than they were under the former coalition government. Today was another example, with this slippery, sneaky Prime Minister refusing to answer a question and refusing to acknowledge the pain that is being felt by Australians.

It probably shouldn't be any surprise to members of this House. When it comes to taking selfies with celebrities, this Prime Minister is all over it. No celebrity can arrive in Australia without the Prime Minister wanting to sidle up for a bit of a selfie. No musician, no former politician, no actor can arrive in Australia without the Prime Minister trying to get some sort of deferred glory.

There are a few inconvenient truths for the Prime Minister and the government. For a household with an average mortgage of $750,000—that is the average; many in large capital cities will be a lot more than that—those people, those families, are paying an additional $20,000 a year in repayments. That's a pretty good 10 months according to the Prime Minister. An extra $20,000 a year, or nearly $2,000 a month, is what every household with a mortgage has to find in order to meet their mortgage repayments.

This is coming from a Prime Minister who promised in a speech before the election that if he was elected he would deliver cheaper mortgages. Where are those cheaper mortgages? I say to those opposite: where are the cheaper mortgages? The Prime Minister won't even acknowledge that he made that promise. He won't even acknowledge that he said the words. We see it time after time. We ask the Prime Minister questions: 'You said X before the election. Will you repeat it now?' He never can, on a succession of promises.

The most extraordinary of those is that he promised 97 times before the election not that he would keep our prices where they were, not that he would reduce the increased growth in energy prices, but in fact that he would reduce power prices by $275 a year. I must say, when he made it the first time, most of us looked at that promise and thought: Was this a slip of the tongue? Is this realistic? Does anyone seriously think that he will be able to deliver power price reductions of $275 a year to households? Lo and behold, he went on to promise it 97 times. It wasn't a slip of the tongue. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't an unscripted, bumbling remark, which we're very used to from this Prime Minister. He made that promise 97 times.

We get to post election and we see the evidence coming out that, in fact, just with electricity—this doesn't include gas—we're going to see increases of up to 31.1 per cent for households and 33.2 per cent for businesses. For those in the gallery, what that means for a household in New South Wales is an extra $564 a year, $485 for someone in South Australia, $432 a year for someone in Queensland and $426 a year in my home state of Victoria, where we will have a by-election on Saturday in Aston. The residents of Aston will pay an extra $426 a year when the Prime Minister promised on 97 occasions before the election that he would deliver a reduction of $275. We get to post election and you wonder what the alibi could possibly be. When he made a promise 97 times what could the alibi be?

The Prime Minister came to question time one day—he hasn't repeated it since—and said, 'The reason we can't meet that commitment any longer is because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.' People in the gallery might think, 'Well, maybe that is a plausible explanation.' The problem is the Prime Minister made that promise 26 times after the invasion, 26 times after we saw the consequences that had for global energy markets. So we have a slippery, sneaky Prime Minister with his pathetic performances in question time where he won't even acknowledge the promise he made. You're talking to households that are not only seeing $20,000 a year increases in the mortgages when they were promised cheaper mortgages but are spending hundreds of dollars more a year on just their electricity. In my home state of Victoria I have constituents who have received notices from their gas supplier saying that their expected gas bills for this upcoming financial year will be $1,000 more, so $500 more for electricity, $1,000 more for gas, $20,000 more for their mortgage, yet it has been a pretty good 10 months for the globetrotting Prime Minister who likes to hang out with celebrities.

We also see today, bizarrely, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer come in here crowing about today's inflation figures. I don't know if I am living in the twilight zone but never did I think there would be a day when a Prime Minister or Treasurer would walk into this chamber feeling happy about an inflation rate of 6.8 per cent. They were beside themselves with excitement. Let me go through some of those numbers. The most significant price rises were for housing, nearly 10 per cent—9.9 per cent; food and beverages, eight per cent; transport, 5.6 per cent. I hate to break it to those opposite but the biggest rises in inflation are not in luxury items. These are things that people cannot take out of their budget. When you're talking about a 10 per cent increase in the cost of housing, an eight per cent increase in the cost of food every time people go to the supermarket, nearly six per cent increase in the cost of transport, these are not things that Australians can remove from their household budgets.

The Prime Minister and Labor think it has been a pretty good 10 months, patting themselves on the back, doing a victory lap, a victory parade, every day. Never have I seen a government clap themselves more than in the first 10 months in this government. They clap themselves every day—how pathetic. Australians are suffering out there. Australians are poorer, their budgets are stretched, they are making difficult decisions they don't want to make for their children and their families, and we have this pathetic mob clapping themselves, and this Prime Minister doing a victory lap in question time every day. Shame on Labor.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

LEMAN () (): I thank the member for Deakin for raising this matter of public importance. It is a pity that he is walking out of the chamber, as always, and not bothering to listen to things here. If he did more listening and less interjecting, he might actually understand the work that we are doing.

We care deeply about the impacts on people of rising mortgages, power bills and, in fact, all the increased costs of living that we are so mindful of. Unlike the opposition, we are doing something to address these issues. I listened to the member for Deakin and, sadly, his rhetoric was as empty as the policies he put forward when he was housing minister, when the best we got was money for wealthy people to do renovations. It might not have been him, but his government was certainly keen to say that, if you needed to buy a home, you should get a better job or just be born into the right family.

There are issues that we have inherited. The difference is we accept that. We knew coming into government that we were going to have to clean up a mess. There are probably a few people in this chamber who know I enjoy gardening. That's not to say I do very much of it these days. But when I think about what is involved in creating and nurturing a beautiful garden I see parallels with the work you have to do to nurture the economy so that people and businesses thrive. I also see parallels with what happens if you neglect it. The impact doesn't happen immediately. Your garden still grows for a while. The flowers still bloom. But there are signs of distress, and you do well to pay attention to those. But at some point, if you ignore those, without the work that is needed in the garden you find yourself looking at a mess—overgrown grass, weeds as tall as your rose bushes and fruit trees in dire need of TLC.

How does that help describe where we find ourselves today on this side of the parliament? For a start, as much as those opposite would like to pretend that the challenges we face have only occurred in the last 10 months, the facts just don't back that up. In 2019, well before COVID and, in my community, bushfires and floods, the cost of living was biting. One of the reasons was wage stagnation. Wages simply have not moved. As we found out, that was because those opposite didn't want wages to go up. In March 2019, the then federal finance minister Mathias Cormann said low wage growth was a 'deliberate design feature' of their economic architecture. So there was deliberate neglect taking place. There were early signs, and they were completely ignored by those opposite. They ignored the pleas of workers, who said, 'Things are tough.' They ignored the issues we raised when we said things were biting for people.

Then, of course neglect led to even worse situations, with inflation biting. That is obviously the defining challenge of 2023. But let's remember the largest jump in inflation. We just had the member for Deakin quoting a bunch of inflation figures. The largest jump in inflation in any quarter this century occurred in the March quarter of not 2023 but 2022. It was a 2.1 per cent leap. By the way, that was before we took office. That was the worst period for inflation, and interest rates started to rise following that. So you can see the signs of distress were there. They weren't hiding in the soil. They had broken out and were in plain sight.

When your garden gets into a state, there are a few things you need to do. You need to get some quick control, and weeding is one thing that will absolutely make a difference. But you can't stop there, because that's not addressing the real issues. You need to mulch so that the weeds don't come back as fast as you pull them out. Then you need to nurture that garden. You won't see the results immediately. I know the National Party will understand that nurturing is really important. It takes time, whether it is roses or wheat that you are growing. Without that, it's never going to thrive. That's the same sort of thinking we have applied to all the issues we have been left with, whether it's power bills, inflation or housing. We don't hide from it. We are proud that we are willing to get out there and do the work.

Let's start with energy. I'm not sure whether the member for Deakin actually referred to this issue in his MPI ramblings—that is a good way to describe it—but let's talk about power bills. Jennifer Westacott, a highly respected businesswoman, said:

… we have not done the work that we should have done for the last decade … we've really made a mess of energy policy.

The chairman of Newcrest, Peter Tomsett, says:

If you don't have policy for long enough—

which has been our situation—

you wind up with a situation where intervention is required. This need not have happened had the right energy policy been put in place. What we're seeing is a symptom.

And, indeed, there were 22 policies, and they didn't land one of them. They left Australia with a national energy grid built for the last century, so we are doing the work.

We know there is long-term work to do, but we also know that people need help quickly. That's why we worked so closely and quickly with the states and territories on getting cost-of-living support that would not drive greater inflation. That was really well thought through in collaboration with the states. Our aim for those deals with the states, working individually with each state, is that we are really looking forward to being able to see those flow through to people in the coming weeks and months. It does take time to do that work.

By the way—and I feel we've said it a lot here—we know that Russia's invasion of Ukraine saw energy costs skyrocket. We understand how challenging that is for small businesses and big businesses. We made key decisions last year. Do you remember when we brought the government back, and those opposite voted against any price relief for people?

We know that what we've done has made a difference. AGL, in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange just last month, said:

Notably, the impact of government intervention contributed to a sharp decline in forward electricity prices …

So we know that what we're doing is working. Steven Kennedy from Treasury described it as a package that 'will make a material difference to reducing cost-of-living pressures'.

So in energy we have bitten the bullet. We are doing the longer-term work getting clean energy, which is the cheapest form of energy you can have. The passage of our safeguard mechanism means that we will start to see significant and serious change. Our incentives to get people to move across to electric vehicles and all those things will make a difference.

Those opposite talk about interest rates. It is so challenging for people who have mortgages to cope with the additional costs they are facing. That is driven by inflation. So what are we doing to tackle inflation? We know those opposite recognise this issue, because in September 2022, May 2022 and April 2022 the member for Hume, the Leader of the Opposition and the former Prime Minister all talked about the pressures of rising costs of living coming not just from the war in Ukraine but the disruptions to supply chains. And of course we are tackling that supply chain issue with the National Reconstruction Fund, which this parliament passed—no thanks to those opposite. Every measure we have put in place has been opposed by those opposite.

In the time I have left, I think it's really is important to touch on the things we've done. We know people's mortgages have gone up, and we also recognise there are things that we can do quite quickly, just like weeding the garden. We can make some quick changes to ease the cost-of-living pressures on people. What are those things? Well, cheaper medicines is one of those things. As we've heard today, we have had the biggest cut in the cost of medicines to people in the entire PBS scheme. That has made millions and millions of dollars difference to people around the country by saving them that money. We also have cheaper child care in less than 100 days for families with children in child care. That is one of those areas where we can make a difference. And guess what? We have—unlike those opposite, who saw the danger signs and chose to ignore them at every single step of the way.

Now, all they do when we put up the solutions is say no. They have said no to our Energy Price Relief Plan. They are saying no to the Housing Australia Future Fund. Guess what? More supply takes pressure off housing prices, which helps people have lower mortgages. They should be ashamed of themselves for coming in here and pretending to care and doing nothing.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you know what else we'll oppose, Member for Macquarie? We will oppose and fight all the way to the ballot box the truckie tax—the 10 per cent hike that Labor is going to introduce on our truckies. If there was one industry that kept this country going and kept goods moving throughout the COVID pandemic—and I know it hasn't gone away yet—it was the trucking industry. And what does Labor want to do? They want to slug it an extra 10 per cent. Do you know what happens when you whack the trucking industry with an extra 10 per cent in heavy vehicle user charges and fuel taxes? It makes every good that goes to every supermarket in this country cost more. The bread-and-butter issues for Australians right across this nation just become that much harder to pay for.

But don't take my word for it. Let's hear from a couple of constituents who phoned my office today. There was a Commonwealth Bank owner occupied mortgage entered into by a constituent in 2018 on a $435,000 loan. The interest rate rose from 3.32 per cent to 3.57 per cent in May 2022. From there, the principal and interest payments rose from $1,975 at 3.32 per cent to $2,628 at 6.82 per cent earlier this month. What do we say to that person? What do we say? We can't just say: 'Labor will fix it with higher wages. Labor will fix it because Labor fixes everything.' No. The fact remains that that person has to find that money. They have to tighten their belt that much more. They have to go without the things that they shouldn't have to go without.

Another constituent, Drew Davis, rang my office this morning from Henty. Henty is in the neighbouring electorate of Farrer. He called the Wagga Wagga office today to say that his power bill has gone up $750 since last year. What did we hear the Prime Minister on 97 occasions say that he was going to do? Reduce power bills. How much did he say he was going to do it by?

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By $275.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's exactly right, Member for Cowper—$275. But it was a fib. He duped the Australian public into thinking they were going to get reduced power costs. Drew lives by himself in a unit in the middle of a town of just over 1,200 people. His electricity bill used to cost around $150 to $250 a quarter. It now sets him back $500 to $600 per quarter. He said he was terrified—his word, not ours—of further increases and did not know how much more it will cost him and how much he will be able to cover future bills.

It's a worrying trend that in Wagga Wagga, my hometown, charity workers say people are seeking help for the first time amidst the cost-of-living crisis, They are concerned many more will need assistance should the cost of groceries, rent and utilities continue to rise. It's not 'should'—it's a matter of fact that they will. They will rise in the electorate of Bennelong, in the electorate of Hasluck and in the electorate of Hunter. What are those members doing about it? What are they saying behind closed doors when Labor caucuses? Are they saying: 'Prime Minister, we need to actually get these costs down. We need to give these people relief. We need to give these people help'? No. They just go along blindly with the policies of the Labor government and say, 'Hey, we're in government right across mainland Australia. We'll do what we like, and to hell with what people's costs of living are.' St Vinnies and the Salvos have recorded a 25 per cent increase in demand for their services in Wagga Wagga. The Wagga Wagga St Vincent de Paul Society president, Peter Burgess, said that, along with the rise, there are residents who have never ever had to ask for help, yet they are now. That is sad. He said:

In every aspect that we measure our business, it is increasing and I don't see an end to that.

A lot of it comes from increasing costs of living … we're getting people coming in and saying, 'Last night, I slept in my car with my two kids.'

That is just so sad.

Under the policies of those opposite, who put ideology above practicality and above all else, we're seeing that our manufacturing businesses are going to be forced overseas. We are going to see cost-of-living pressures increase for Mr and Mrs Average—people out there who those people opposite should be helping, should be assisting, but they are ignoring the cries and pleas for help. Shame on all of you.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If those opposite thought this was a really important MPI, they'd be here in droves. The shadow minister is standing there. The member for Longman is leaving. There are three backbenchers and a person on duty. That's how concerned they are with mortgage costs and power bills. Where is the Leader of the Opposition, the bloke that tried to put in a $7 GP tax to try to cut $50 billion out of the health budget in 2014? He then put on a Medicare freeze, for year after year after year, to increase the cost of seeing a doctor. So don't come in here and give us lectures about the cost of living.

The coalition left us a trillion dollars in debt. They had low wages, stagnant productivity and energy chaos. According to Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister, his own government's right wing sabotaged and caused energy chaos. He blamed the right wing in the Liberal Party. That's what he did. The National Energy Guarantee, the NEG, was one of 22 policies. It was dead, according to Prime Minister Morrison, the member for Cook. They couldn't get the policy right, but they went ring-a-ring-a-rosie, holding each other, clapping each other, cheering each other, for getting rid of a price on carbon, which would have meant cleaner, cheaper renewable energy to help people in terms of power costs. But these people over here, who couldn't land an energy policy when they were in government for nine years, presume to give us lectures about that.

When they had a chance to help people with energy prices and cost of living last year, in December, with $1.5 billion of energy relief in the budget—and they'll get that again in the May budget—what did they do? They voted against it. So don't believe what they say; look at their actions. They have four people here and someone on duty. They're really concerned about mortgage costs and power bills, but they can't even bother turning up! It's their MPI. It's not ours. We're here in large numbers. It's their MPI. It's not ours. It's vain and false concern for people's cost-of-living pressures and their mortgage bills. It's vain and it's not real, because those opposite had a chance to do something about it.

It's as if COVID never existed in terms of supply chain pressures. It's as if the war in Ukraine had never happened. But, if you go to Europe, if you speak to the leaders in Europe, the politicians there, they will tell you that the war in Ukraine is affecting their energy costs. They're having to be innovative and creative in relation to that. In terms of energy, those opposite think you can do anything. Nuclear seems to be their obsession now. I look forward to them campaigning for nuclear power plants on the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, around Ipswich and up in Cairns and Townsville. I look forward to them campaigning on that policy at the next election, because that's not the answer. It's renewables. It's solar. It's wind. That's what they should have been doing. They should never, ever have got rid of the carbon price. They should never have done that. The Productivity Commission said that.

When it comes to a policy that would make a difference in housing, the Housing Australia Future Fund, they say no. Like the Greens, they've said no. It would provide tens of thousands of extra social and community housing. And they presume to give us lectures. The member for Riverina, whom I actually like personally, presumes to give us a lecture on ideology. They have an ideological position that the Commonwealth government should not be involved in social and community housing, public housing, because that's a matter for the states. So they won't vote for it. That's why they won't support people. Veterans would get help. Single mothers would get help. Emergency workers, the heroes of the pandemic, would get help. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would get help. People who need help would get it, in terms of cheaper housing, social and community housing. The coalition are worried about mortgage bills. There is an opportunity for them to vote to change things, to help people.

When given an opportunity to address the supply chain issues with the National Reconstruction Fund, they voted against it. So everything they say is at odds with what they do and how they vote. Look at what they do, not what they say. If they were ever concerned about this issue at all, they'd be here on the front bench and the back bench in multitudes, but they're not. There are 57 of them who sit over there, and five of them are here now. So, to those opposite: don't give us a lecture, don't give us platitudes, about this issue at all.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's a bit rich of the member for Blair to come in and lecture us when our communities are some of the poorest communities across Australia. We're here representing them, and when he says that we don't have bums on seats in an MPI, I'd just ask him to think back to over 10 months ago, when Labor was putting MPIs on in here and it was very, very sparse.

But I will talk to the MPI. I think it's very appropriate that it's brought on today because, just like my friend and colleague from Riverina, across my electorate I am seeing increasing numbers of people going to places like Vinnies and Lifeline and calls to Lifeline from people who are so distressed about the cost of living, the cost of electricity and the cost of their mortgages, and they don't know where to turn to. For all the smoke and mirrors that we've seen from Labor over the past 10 months, they keep going up. Now, I will give credit to where credit is due. There has been a decrease in the cost of medicine and there have been more childcare places—or, I should say, childcare fees. But not everybody has a child in child care; not everybody is on medicines. We need real, tangible policy to force down the cost of living—real, tangible policy to allow people some comforts of life.

I spoke recently about pensioners—a couple in South West Rocks who wrote to me out of despair. Both of them are on the pension and noted they received a $44 a fortnight increase recently. Well, their power bill has just gone up by 44 per cent. That equates to half of what the increase in the pension was. On top of that, add the increases in the cost of fuel, the cost of groceries and the cost of almost everything. I'll give you some examples. We are now paying 12.2 per cent more for bread and cereal products, 8.5 per cent more for fruit and vegetables, a whopping 14.9 per cent more for dairy products and 8.2 per cent more for meat and seafood. What that is doing is forcing people away from fresh food to tinned food. They're not buying meat and they're going without. They're hurting out there, and what we are hearing from Labor is this rhetoric that, while the opposition are voting against everything—guess what?—nothing has worked. Nothing is working. Prices keep going up. Electricity prices keep going up. We know this because there's going to be another increase of another 25 per cent from Origin from 1 July. How are these people going to cope?

Stop blaming us and start doing your job. Start implementing policies that actually work, rather than launching headlong into ideology and renewables that aren't there now. We are all for renewables, but they're not there now. This ideology of no more gas and no more coal is pushing everything through the roof. You look at us and you say, 'You don't care.' Well, we could say that about you. You don't care about the public. You're not implementing any solutions to ease that pain, to stop people having to go to Lifeline and to stop people having to go to Vinnies.

Let me talk about the tax on the truckies. Where do you think that's going to flow to? That's right: the little people—those same people from South West Rocks, those same people from Dorrigo who can't pay their bills now. They can't pay their electricity bills. It's just going to flow on. It'll flow on to the consumer. It'll flow on to the customer. They will be the ones it will flow on to. It will be your constituents saying, 'Guess what? That tax that you imposed on the truckies is hurting us.' Do your job and help your constituents.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to concur with my good friend and colleague the member for Blair. I was here for almost a decade in opposition, and I was involved in lots of MPIs. We turned up, we participated and we called on the then government to act. Look at what we've got. This is the opposition's MPI. None of them are here. They're not showing any effort. They're not supporting their speakers. They're the ones supposed to be providing quorum for this debate, and where are they? We used to turn up.

But it doesn't stop at their willingness to turn up; it's also this question—haven't we debated this before? Hasn't this been here over and over again? I think I'm the last person on the government side to speak on this; it's been on the agenda so long. They just don't care. I think that's what they're demonstrating. They're not really interested in this parliament and the standing orders. They've demonstrated once again they don't understand the standing orders. They're just not here. Their inability to articulate this MPI is another example of how they just don't care.

The previous speaker said, 'We represent the poorest electorates.' We know that. We spent 10 years asking, 'What are you doing for regional and rural Australia?' Your electorates are struggling. You implemented policies in government that deliberately attacked rural and regional electorates. Stage 3 tax cuts, one of their core principles, do nothing for rural and regional electorates, because people there don't earn a lot, yet they pursued it and pursued it. There are lots of examples where they failed in government to do something to help people in the regions.

Now we are putting forward policies. I do find extraordinary as well that they say we're not doing anything on energy. Did they just not notice that they voted against our energy price relief plan? We all came back here in December. Once the states, the Prime Minister and the government had worked out a deal, we all came back. Just as we were getting ready to go to all of our Christmas functions, so urgent was it for our government to do something about energy price relief, we came back—and they were here. They did turn up, but maybe they mentally didn't turn up. They were physically sitting here. Maybe they didn't realise they'd actually voted no to the energy relief plan they are now trying to say we're not doing anything about.

This government inherited a mess and is working hard to clean it up. It's not just in energy prices; we are doing our best to get inflation under control, where we can, as a government. We are also doing more to lower the cost of living in multiple different ways. We've talked about cheaper child care. That's going to help thousands and thousands of families who have little people in early childhood education. I do childcare pick up, I talk to the mums and dads at pickup and fees are hurting. Under the previous government they went up by over 40 per cent—

An honourable member: 49.

49 per cent—that's how much childcare fees went up under the previous government. That is why one of our first acts as a government was to introduce cheaper child care.

Free TAFE is making it affordable for people to go and get the skills that are going to help get our economy moving. When I talk to people in my regional electorate, they say one of the biggest barriers for them going to TAFE is the cost. Providing free TAFE in the areas where we need skills is giving an opportunity to people from backgrounds where they don't have the income to pay TAFE fees.

We supported the minimum wage increase. That's something we campaigned on. They never, ever did—which would really help so many workers in regional communities, so many workers in their own electorates. They run away from pay rises. They don't want to see pay rises that help our lowest paid workers. We support it, and we again today have said we will support another wage increase that is similar to inflation.

These are just some of the many ways our government is getting behind and helping to lower it. We know it is just the beginning. We know we're on a long journey in getting on top of inflation, helping households and relieving cost-of-living pressures. But you know what? The Australian people get that it's a tough ask, and they're with us. We are not just seeing that in the opinion polls; we are hearing that in our listening posts. We are hearing that when we go to community groups. We are hearing that when we are out in our electorates. People are saying: 'You are doing a good job. Keep going. I'm so relieved. And thank you, thank you, thank you.' That is what we are doing on this side. We are turning up.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like yesterday, we hear complaints from the other side about why these MPIs keep coming. They keep coming because there are no solutions from the other side. As soon as there are solutions, these MPIs will change, and they might even stop, and the complaining can stop.

What we're talking about are actual real people's lives. I want to single out a particular part of Melbourne—the seat of Aston, which has the suburbs of Rowville and Bayswater and areas that I know really well. It's important that we acknowledge that that part of Melbourne matters and is doing it tough. They're looking for solutions from this government, and they're not getting them. They will pass judgement on this government this Saturday, and we encourage them to do that.

We are a big, wide, brown land, but 86 per cent in this country live in urban areas, and what we know as to urban areas is that the price of land is higher, and, when the price of land is higher, you pay more on your mortgage. So people who live in the seat of Aston pay more on their mortgage. When we look at the figures of an average mortgage—

I'm glad you raise that. I'll take that interjection. The candidate, Roshena Campbell, lives in the seat of Aston, unlike your candidate. Your candidate does not live in the seat of Aston. And we'll hear this mistruth that is being peddled throughout this campaign.

Government members interjecting—

No. Roshena Campbell lives in Aston, unlike the Labor candidate. But I'm glad you've raised Roshena Campbell, because Roshena Campbell is someone that I've known personally for many years, someone who is a fighter and an advocate for people who are doing it tough throughout Melbourne. The reason that matters is that families in the seat of Aston—

Government members interjecting—

Now, Deputy Speaker—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm listening.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it is hard to hear, with the interjections. They seem to be quite upset that Roshena Campbell lives in the seat of Aston. And it's important that that be clarified.

Those with a mortgage of $750,000 now have to find an extra $20,000. That's $20,000 after tax. So, whether you're a single income family or a dual income family, you have to go and find that extra money. Now, we know that's not going to come from a pay rise, whether you're in the private sector or the public sector or self-employed. That's just not how this works. So that extra saving has to come from things that you cut, and it comes in many different ways.

When you're standing in the checkout line at Woolworths or Coles or an IGA, there are things that you used to buy that you now put back. And we know that the things that cost most are fresh, quality food. So Australians are having to put quality food back on the shelves. That food's not just for the individual paying the bill; that is for the children in those families. There are real, daily consequences for people. We know that, when children come home and say: 'I'd like to go on a camp'—and those children include students from Melbourne and the seat of Aston, who would like to be here, on a camp, but those things cost money—again, parents are making choices and they're making sacrifices. They're making sacrifices for things like sport—for joining a soccer team. Soccer is one of the most expensive sports that you can play. It's not subsidised like AFL and other sports are. And it's so popular in Melbourne. It's a popular sport in the seat of Aston. Families are telling me, in my seat and in other seats, that they now have to pull back. They can't let their kids play the very sport that they want to play. So, when the voters of Aston go to the booths on Saturday, they will pass judgement on this government.

I'm not someone who comes in here and blames every interest rate rise on you; I won't do that. But I will say that what you do in response is your responsibility, and you have been found wanting. You come in here and want to re-litigate the previous government, because that's the easy thing to do. It's easy to stand up and pretend you're still in opposition, to pretend you're here. And if you really wish to be over here, you're welcome to come over. You know that can happen. If what you want to do is re-litigate the previous government, then where you really want to be is in opposition. That's where you really want to be. That sounds like it's easier and it's more fun because it's easier to throw stones than to actually solve problems for people who are doing it tough. To the people of Aston—of Rowville, of Bayswater, of Upper Ferntree Gully: you get to pass judgement this Saturday.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an absolute joke. This motion that the opposition has put up is laughable. When you think of the last 10 years, when they were in government, it's like they've tried to whitewash history from 2013 through to 2022. It's like nothing existed before 21 May 2022, and they have forgotten that they were in government all those years and implemented nothing.

Now, when you're in government, you have a duty to lay down the foundations for the future. And that's what they failed to do. They failed to do that with health, and we saw that the highest out-of-pocket costs for health were in their era. They froze the Medicare levy, which saw an increase in costs. They were in government when we had the lowest wages on record. And then, of course, we can't forget their bungled 22 policies for energy—not one or two but 22. Had they had a coherent policy in place we might have seen energy prices a bit lower in today's world. We know that the only way to bring energy prices down is to have more players in the market. If you're an energy producer, or in the market for selling energy, why would you have committed to anything in those last 10 years, without any certainty?

If you look at the issues that we're going through today—yes, there are cost-of-living problems for families and there are interest rate rises—there was nothing put in place, for 10 years, to build some sort of foundation to protect the Australian public. To come in here today and move this matter of public importance is a laugh and a joke. You should be taking responsibility. What's happening today is due to your inactions of 10 years. As I said, we saw the lowest productivity rates and the lowest wage increases. And, when we tried to argue against low wages, we were told it would increase inflation. We were told we shouldn't interfere with the industrial commission. We were told that they weren't interested in seeing any wage increase to assist the Australian public.

The cycle of rate rises began before the election. We saw the first rate rises way before the election. One of the things that keep mortgage rates at a lower level is the affordability of housing. Another is the ability to have stock in the market. So we've delivered a housing policy—and the opposition have voted against it—which will deliver 100,000 homes and take some pressure off that particular market. They voted against it. In December the Prime Minister brought parliament back to ensure that we could put some action in place that would assist with energy costs. What did the opposition do? They voted against it. And they come in here today, wanting to talk about the cost of living and the rising power bills et cetera. It's a joke. Look at the opposition benches. There are two people sitting on the backbench and one person sitting at the table. Even their own backbench has given up on their tactics committee. They're not in here. Whoever wrote this particular MPI today is an embarrassment.

We are delivering on many fronts that they have opposed. We are delivering on cheaper child care, expanded paid parental leave and cheaper medicines. In my electorate alone, $300,000 was saved through cheaper medicines in January and February, when we lowered the PBS prices. That is incredible. We need more affordable housing and we're acting on that. We're delivering on energy bill relief and we're getting wages moving again, which is so important—and something they did not do for 10 years. In fact, they wanted to see lower wages; we remember their former finance minister arguing against any increase in wages, saying how great it was for the economy and that wages should be low. We're paying the price today for government inaction for the last 10 years.

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find myself outnumbered here, but we'll have a go anyway! I will take up a point from the previous speaker, the member for Adelaide. Groom must be a very different place. We saw tremendous investment in our energy sector across coal, gas and solar. Just outside wind, we're energy agnostic; we'll take whatever works, and we get on with the job up there.

I come to this place, as I'm sure many of my colleagues from all sides do, to make the world a better place and to hope the next generation have more opportunities and better quality of life than our generation experienced. Quite simply put, I want a better Australia. We're all here to do that. That's what our job is. This includes, for me, very much keeping the great Australian dream alive. The idea of being able to buy and own your own home—this is an important part of what you can do, why people come to our country, what makes us a special place, that that dream is still alive. And I want to keep it there. But right now, for so many young people, particularly in Groom, that dream is either unobtainable or, for those who have just got onto the property ladder, a weight that's almost too much to bear.

Prior to the election the Prime Minister acknowledged this, and that's why he made his promise of cheaper mortgages. It was a very good promise to make; nowhere more so than in Groom was it a good promise to make, because prior to the election we were regularly reported as having the most financial stress amongst mortgage holders of anywhere in the nation. We've been growing. It's a place where people invest and get ahead; I made the analogy before with our energy markets. We want to get in and have a go. We take that risk. Unfortunately, with that has come stress. That was true before the election, when the Prime Minister made his promise of cheaper mortgages, and it is true after the election. Since then, the number of mortgage holders experiencing financial stress has gone from 40 per cent before the election to 73 per cent now. Things have gotten a lot worse, particularly for a lot of young people who are just in the property market or for people looking to get into the property market. Sadly, that great Australian dream of homeownership is slipping away.

When the Prime Minister promised lower mortgages, Australians believed him and wanted him to succeed in that promise. I'm not giving up on that dream; I'm sad that the Prime Minister is. But, as parochial as I am for my great region, it's not just in Groom that this is being experienced. This is from a Roy Morgan report from yesterday: mortgage stress increased to its highest level since September 2011, with 25.3 per cent of mortgage holders now 'at risk'. It estimates 1.23 million mortgage holders were at risk of mortgage stress in the three months to February 2023. That number has increased by 514,000 over the last year. That's an extraordinary increase.

It was a great promise to make. I think this is where we've come to. This is not a joke; this is a very important promise the Prime Minister has walked away from. Prior to the election this side of the House made the announcement of the Super Home Buyer Scheme, which would allow first home buyers to use their superannuation to purchase a property. That was a commitment we made because we recognised, like the Prime Minister, that mortgage stress was a huge issue and that the great Australian dream needed to be kept alive. We acknowledged that and made that commitment. I'm very proud to say that after the election we've kept the commitment; Peter Dutton has maintained that commitment we made before the election. I'm reminded of the great Seinfeld episode about the hire car—you took the booking but you didn't hold the booking. This is the thing with commitments: you've got to make them and then hold them on the other side of the election. Those opposite haven't held their commitment, and it's important that the Australian people understand that.

To the young people of Groom, I will be very clear: I want you to own a home. I want you to get on the property ladder. I want that dream to be alive for you. And, unlike the Prime Minister, we will keep our commitment to work towards that dream. I think there's nothing more important in Australia right now than to see young people coming through and owning their own homes. This is not a joke. This is not a laughing matter. It's a very important issue for us to be talking about. We've been talking about it for a fair while now, and we're going to keep talking about it. Members opposite, I know you're going to hear this over and over again: these broken promises are hurting the Australian people.

Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

s ROBERTS () (): I rise to speak in response to the shadow minister's matter of public importance. Clearly, it's not very important. The shadow minister does not have the courtesy to remain in the chamber, and we have three members of the opposition here, which actually speaks volumes. This reflects, in my view, total contempt for those of us on this side of the chamber who are trying to fix the economy after a decade of neglect. My mum used to say, 'If you stuff up, step up and fix it.' If you stuff up, step up and fix it. Here we are, in March 2023, carefully working our way through a trillion dollars worth of debt that was clearly left by those opposite, who are taking no responsibility whatsoever—no responsibility for a decade of neglect. They are regularly on their feet blaming us, criticising us, for the mess that they created and that we are trying to fix. It's astonishing that they have such short memories. What's worse is that they regularly vote against the important initiatives that we are trying to implement to fix the mess that they left.

Five minutes to articulate everything I would like to say is not enough. Five minutes is not enough. I could stand here for absolute hours. However, I will provide some examples. The Leader of the Opposition, on 27 March 2023, said on ABC Melbourne:

I think we've been a constructive opposition. I think we have been responsible in the way in which we've entered debates.

Unbelievable. The 'no-alition' is back. They said no to the Energy Price Relief Plan, no to the Housing Australia Future Fund, no to the National Reconstruction Fund, no to free TAFE, no to increasing the minimum wage, no to fair and sustainable superannuation, no to the secure jobs, better pay bill, no to electric vehicle discounts, no to a climate bill—a 43 per cent reduction by 2030? A big fat no. They said no to reforms of the safeguard mechanism, no to Rewiring the Nation, no to permanent visa pathways for existing temporary protection visa holders and no to the Jobs and Skills Summit. The priority of those opposite is to borrow more to fund tax breaks for people who already have tens of millions of dollars in superannuation. It is outrageous when, in stark contrast, our priority on this side of the House, when Australians are doing it tough, is targeted, costed relief in a responsible budget.

The Albanese Labor government has a three-point plan for addressing the inflation challenge in the economy. It's about relief, repair and restraint—responsible cost-of-living relief and repairing supply-side constraints, and fee-free TAFE, cleaner and cheaper energy, the National Construction Fund and more affordable housing. It's about a responsible budget with spending restraint, returning almost all revenue upgrades to the bottom line and keeping spending essentially flat over the next four years to not add to inflation. We understand that the rising cost of living is hitting a lot of Australians hard, and inflation is the defining economic challenge of 2023, as it was in 2022. This is driven in large part by Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. We have spoken about that before, but it is a clear example. But also, in no small part, it's unquestionably a consequence of the wasted decade under the previous government. By voting against the energy relief bill, the National Reconstruction Fund and the Housing Australia Future Fund, they are voting for higher inflation for longer.

Actions speak louder than words, without a doubt, and I would like to place on the record, in repetition for emphasis, what we on this side of the House are doing—what the Albanese Labor government are doing. We successfully argued for the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage increase, in line with inflation. We have introduced legislation that will drive 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 which the opposition tried to block and then criticised us. We are delivering cheaper child care. We are delivering cheaper medicines. We are delivering fee-free TAFE and more university places. We are expanding paid parental leave. We are building more affordable homes, including through the national housing accord. Pensions, allowances and rent assistance have increased in line with inflation. We have brought in a new pensioner work bond so more Australians can keep more of what they earn without it affecting their pension. By voting this way, we are recognising and understanding our communities. We know Australians are hurting and we are here to help them.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has now concluded.