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

My question is to the Prime Minister, and it concerns what my constituents in Petrie have said to me about Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Georgina said, 'Two of us spend $300 plus on groceries. It just keeps going up and up.' Shenelle said, 'A family of five used to spend $400 a fortnight for a huge shop. Now we need to set aside an extra $200 per fortnight.' These quotes are from this week, in 2023. When will this out-of-touch Prime Minister finally admit that Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians paid more, under the coalition, in inflation, because the largest increase in any quarter this century was March 2022—2.1 per cent. Australians paid more tax. The highest taxing government in modern Australian history was, of course, the Howard government. The second highest was, you guessed it, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. That's a fact. The deficit was larger under those opposite.

We understand that there are inflationary pressures in the economy. Today the inflation figures have come off a bit, the monthly figures, but we understand there is more work to be done. We understand the pressure that constituents, such as the ones mentioned by the member for Petrie—I assume. I never actually get the correspondence, but I will take him at its word. He's a Dolphins fan so he can probably be trusted. I'll take him at his word. We understand that people are under pressure, and that's why I just hope that the member for Petrie told those people: 'Yes, that's true. I get that it's tough. Sorry for voting against $1½ billion of energy price relief.'