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:

Ever more expensive mortgages and the pressure on Australians' cost of living.

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

It was only a short time ago in this chamber that we heard from the Prime Minister that it has been 'a good ten months'. As I get around my electorate and around Australia, that's not what I hear from Australians. I don't think Australians agree with the Prime Minister.

Today we heard from the Leader of the House an answer to the very puzzling question: how could they possibly think that it was a good 10 months? He gave that answer very clearly. The answer is more laws. For Labor, that is the answer to everything. A law for every Australian. A law for every man, woman and child in this country. That's what we need.

But what we have not seen in the last 10 months are promises being kept. Yesterday in question time we saw the Prime Minister use fairytale language in response to a serious question about the very real housing stress that Australians are feeling. In an answer to that question, he said that he would not promise absolute pixie dust. While I am sure the Prime Minister wants a happy ending to his fairytale, the real question here is: has he kept his promises, or did he indeed promise absolute pixie dust in the lead-up to the last election?

It is worth holding him to account on this, because there were many promises before the last election. We all heard them. We had them many times over—in one particular case, 97 times over. The promise of cheaper mortgages—it turns out that was pixie dust. The promise of no changes to superannuation taxes—it turns out that was pixie dust. The promise of a $275 reduction in electricity prices, a promise made 97 times, no less—what was that promise? It was pixie dust. The promise of lower inflation—what was that promise? Nothing but pixie dust. The promise that we are not touching franking credits—'We're not touching franking credits'. Well, that was another piece of pixie dust.

It is clear that the Prime Minister's word means absolutely nothing. It is quite right and understandable that right now Australians are sitting there thinking, 'How can I believe this government and this Prime Minister?' The reasonable question every Australian can be asking—and I know many are asking—is: 'What will be this government's next broken promise and their next piece of pixie dust?' Will it be stage 3 tax cuts? Will they go? Are they going? We heard them promise this, because we knew they did not want to go to an election like the one in 2019 where they were at least straight with the Australian people about what they intended to do, which was to raise taxes. They were clear. There was no ambiguity. Are stage 3 tax cuts going to go?

Will it be changes to work expense deductions? Today I asked the Prime Minister whether there will be changes to work expense deductions. He got up in his usual sneering manner—at a time when Australians are worried about taxes and taxes have gone up almost 10 per cent in the last quarter; that's how much they've gone up in the CPI data— and in response to being asked whether he would rule out changes to work expense deductions he completely ignored the question.

Will there be more changes to superannuation taxes? We know they have opened this Pandora's box. They're not worried at all, clearly, about keeping their promise that there would be no changes to superannuation taxes. So are we going to see more? The assistant minister is sitting here. He's the champion of changing superannuation taxes. He's the champion of going after unrealised capitalised gains. Is he going to go to the next level? Is he going to keep going on this? Will there be changes to capital gains tax?

We know this Labor government believes firmly in taxing people before they have any cash—unrealised capital gains—so will we move from a realised capital gains tax to an unrealised capital gains tax? Will they move to an unrealised capital gains tax across the board? It is clear they're very happy to go in this direction. There's no ambiguity about that. If that forces farmers to sell their business and if that forces small business people to flog their businesses, they couldn't care less. It is of no concern to them. The reality is that farmers are a small business people. There's nowhere there for unions, is there? So, if they have to flog their business, if they have to get out, if they have to go through that cathartic processes of selling off their business—and from time to time we see farmers and small business people having to do this for other reasons in our electorates—if they have to do it because of government policy, the government couldn't care less.

Before the election we saw a prime minister who said he would take responsibility. He said things like, 'I will act with integrity and lead with responsibility'—no mention of pixie dust there—'and treat you with respect.' Yet, when asked about the cost-of-living pressures Australians are facing right now, he simply walks away from it. On 4 May, the Prime Minister said, 'When leaders focus on conflict and blame shifting'—no blame shifting from him at the moment!—'they achieve little beyond protecting their own narrow political interests.' The truth of the matter is that he is looking for anyone to blame for his broken promises.

The truth is that, on the ground, we are seeing extreme pain at the grocery checkout, when people fill up their cars and when they make their mortgage payments. The numbers are stunning. If you are a young family who has bought a house in south-western Sydney, you probably paid close to a million dollars with a mortgage of $750,000. In the time that those opposite have been in government, your mortgage payments have gone up by $1,700 a month. That is around $20,000 a year. At the same time as you're seeing rising electricity bills and rising grocery prices, you're up for in the order of $23,000 or $24,000 that you didn't have to find in the past. What gives? Someone has to take on an extra job. The grandparents have to do a couple of days of child care. You have to take one of the kids out of school because you can't afford the school fees. You can't put the same meals on the table that the family is used to. These are real strains and stresses being faced by Australians.

We've heard many examples of this from those on this side of the chamber in recent days. The member for Petrie just yesterday brought us the stories of Georgina and Shenelle, who are struggling with the rising cost of living. We heard from the members for Menzies, Hughes, Herbert, McPherson who have all brought to the chamber devastating stories of the reality of what families and businesses are facing right now from the cost-of-living pressures that those opposite won't even answer questions about. They won't even answer the most basic of questions about these pressures.

Last night on Channel 10, we heard even more stories from businesses in Western Sydney. We heard about a family run Turkish grocery shop in Auburn serving the community for more than 40 years, struggling to get the money to pay their staff, and all we hear from this out-of-touch Prime Minister is disdain for questions being asked about those pressures. We're seeing those pressures being felt at Lifeline. In my own electorate, the Revive Emergency Relief Program—a fantastic volunteer group supported by Karen and Lesley—is just seeing more and more people coming in off the street to get a meal and feed the family. This is the reality of inflation. This is the harsh on-the-ground reality of inflation that those opposite show absolutely no concern about. More than 800,000 Australian households are coming off fixed rate mortgages and going on to floating mortgages. This is a disaster in the making which those opposite are ignoring. This is a government that simply couldn't care less.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A year ago, the coalition lost nine seats in South Australia and lost government. Ten months ago, they lost 17 seats federally and lost government. Last weekend, they lost at least a dozen seats in New South Wales and lost government. The coalition now holds no mainland state or territory. The most senior Liberal governing leaders in Australia today are Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff.

You'd think that the loss of 40 seats and three elections would provoke some soul-searching, but the main lesson that the coalition seems to be taking from this is that they're too woke and they need to move to the right. The fact is that the coalition hasn't woken up. The Australian people aren't buying what you're selling. This is no better epitomised than by the shadow Treasurer, a man who brought us the current energy crisis—a man who is best known for hiding energy price increases from the Australian people, for his Cayman Islands company, for the Jam Land scandal and for making things up about Clover Moore and Naomi Wolf. As he might have put it, 'Well done, Angus.' He thinks he's the second coming of the Messiah, but most Australians just think he's like Mr Burns from The Simpsonsjust with a slightly greater tendency to look straight down the barrel of the camera.

The once-great Liberal Party has lost its way. At its founding in 1944, Robert Menzies said:

We took the name "Liberal" because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary …

Menzies never once used the word 'conservative' to describe his party. Like Deakin before him and Holt, Gorton and Fraser after him, Menzies was a liberal, not a conservative, yet under Howard, Abbott, Morrison and the current Leader of the Opposition, the Liberal Party has become what Sir Robert Menzies wished against. The Liberal Party of Australia has become a party of reaction. It isn't the Liberal Party; it's a conservative party. It is the party of no.

It doesn't have to be this way. Oppositions don't have to oppose. Just look at the member for Grayndler, who, when he took on the job, said he wanted to be known as the Labor leader, not the opposition leader. Look at how he behaved and how we as a party behaved during the COVID pandemic—supporting the government on its health measures and supporting the government on its economic measures.

In less than a year, what has the coalition said no to? They've said no to energy price relief and a temporary gas price cap. They've said no to the Housing Australia Future Fund, which would build 20,000 social housing properties and 10,000 affordable homes, with homes earmarked for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence. The coalition has said no to the National Reconstruction Fund. The coalition has said no to free TAFE. The coalition has said no to increasing the minimum wage. The coalition has said no to the secure jobs, better pay bill, which puts gender equity at the heart of wage setting, expands access to flexibility for carers and prohibits sexual harassment in the Fair Work Act. The coalition has said no to cheaper electric vehicles. The coalition has said no to Rewiring the Nation.

The biggest sign that they have become the nattering nabobs of negativity is their break with business over climate policy. While the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia are celebrating the safeguard mechanism passing parliament, the coalition are in here voting against the safeguard mechanism—voting against a measure that is the largest single carbon abatement measure that the government is pursuing, voting against a measure that provides certainty to industry and voting against a measure designed by Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt. The coalition have become so much the party of 'no' that they are today saying no to their own measures.

There is a thing called the useless box, whose only job, when you switch it on, is to switch itself off again—

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

Props are not allowed.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and that is the very definition of the modern Liberal Party. They are the useless box of Australian politics. They have become the party that are Liberals in name only. They are the lino party. Now, lino was a great floor covering in the 1950s. That is the modern Liberal Party today—a party stuck in the past. A party mired in negativity. No wonder former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull spends so much time criticising them. And those on that side grumble about expelling Malcolm Turnbull from the Liberal Party. They say Malcolm Turnbull isn't a real Liberal. What they don't realise is that they are the ones who have ceased being true liberals. All political parties lose their way from time to time. Mine was once headed by Billy Hughes and once headed by Mark Latham! But when you're in a hole, the least you can do is stop digging. The 'Trumpification' of Robert Menzies's former party is truly sad. They think that their way back to the centre is by listening to the Sky After Dark crowd. I know some of those on my side of the House will be telling me that I shouldn't be giving helpful advice to our political opponents. I shouldn't be reminding them that the way to win elections is from the centre of Australian politics.

But I'm not worried by that. This is a party which has lost federal seats once held by Julie Bishop, Peter Costello, Joe Hockey, Josh Frydenberg, Malcolm Turnbull and Robert Menzies, and still comes in here rejecting the need for climate action, voting against their very own safeguard mechanism. This is a party who, in Victoria, has just seen its leader rolled in his attempt to expel one of their MPs, who attended an anti-trans rally that included black-shirted members of the far right performing Nazi salutes on the steps of the Victorian parliament. In being rolled, the Victorian Liberal leader was being lobbied by members of the federal Liberal Party, urging him to keep that member in the party.

The MPI is apparently about affordable housing, although the shadow Treasurer didn't seem to display much concern for the issue in his remarks earlier. Their concern over housing is as genuine as a fox crying tears for the wellbeing of the chickens. This is the party that cut social housing programs. This is a party that allowed the home ownership rate to fall to its lowest level in half a century. The coalition purport to be caring about inflation—a concern that's as genuine as a $3 note, because the single quarter of highest inflation this century was March 2022, when the coalition were in office. Interest rate rises began under the coalition and, indeed, the opposition leader said at the time:

… nobody wants to see interest rates go up, but it's a reality of a world where there's inflation.

Those opposite claim that they're the party of lower taxes. The Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments were the second-highest taxing governments since federation, behind only the Howard government. They came into office in 2013 promising that they would deliver a budget surplus each and every year. By the time their last Intergenerational report came down, it was projecting deficits all the way out until 2060. They're the party that say they are the safe custodians of taxpayer monies, and yet they gave $20 billion of JobKeeper to firms with rising revenue. We supported measures that saved jobs, but giving JobKeeper to Harvey Norman, AP Eagers and offshore billionaires did not save a single job.

This weekend, the voters of Aston will cast their ballots. We know of course that no government has taken a seat from the opposition in a by-election since 1920. We know the seat of Aston has been held by the Liberal Party since 1990. But I have a simple message for the voters of Aston: the Liberal Party has abandoned you. It's time to abandon the Liberal Party.

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

There's a scene in the movie Troy where Brad Pitt, playing Achilles, says to a young kid who asked him why he wanted to go and fight this huge giant, 'No one will remember your name.' We do remember Billy Hughes' name, and I can't believe the member for Fenner has disparaged a former Labor luminary. But I'm going to stand here and stick up for Billy Hughes, because Billy Hughes, known as 'the little digger', stood up not only for those who were in the army in World War I but also for Australians at the Treaty of Versailles and for ex-servicemen.

To the member for Fenner, as much as I've got a lot of respect for you, you're probably like the kid in Troy: will they remember your name? They certainly remember Billy Hughes' name. And when you go on about the Liberal Party and having something that nobody wants to buy, I might recall the figures of the first preferences vote in the 2022 election and put them on the Hansard: ALP, 4,760,030; LNP, 5,233,334. First preference votes: ALP, 32.58 per cent; LNP 35.7 per cent. On both accounts—and we can make statistics what they are—they're pretty stark.

I wouldn't go on too much, because your Achilles heel sits right over there. While you might talk about the Teals and the Greens, it's the Greens who are going to take your seats, my friend. When you start doing dodgy deals and the Greens go out there and do press conferences about what they've achieved and the dirty deals that they've done—because what you're doing is sending all the emissions offshore, as the member for Fairfax quite correctly pointed out. I'd hate to be in the concrete industry because it is going to be so much more expensive to get concrete—and, indeed, farming.

The cost of living is just going through the roof, but while the member for Fenner was on his feet I didn't hear him talk about the bread-and-butter issues too much in his matter of public importance contribution. He didn't talk about those issues which are affecting Mr and Mrs Average. They're out there and they're wondering how they're going to pay for things. But don't take my word for it: the Salvation Army's Doorways program coordinator in Wagga Wagga, Jen Cameron, said:

… since January 2 this year, the number of people who have asked for help due to high financial expenses and inadequate income has increased by 25 per cent.

"People are saying they've never received help before, they've never asked for it."

She told the Daily Advertiser that comments from the people who they're trying to help are really concerning, and:

"Unless we see a dire change to the cost of living in the future, it's going to rise."

She talked about the phenomenal—her word—amount of calls asking about payment assistance vouchers. She's worried that electricity prices rising by 20 per cent in July is going to have a very harmful effect on those people whom the member for Fenner and his cohorts opposite should be talking about and doing something for every day of the week.

Instead of coming in here and disparaging Billy Hughes, instead of coming in here and disparaging the modern Liberal Party, instead of coming in here and quoting Robert Menzies—perhaps out of tune or out of context—he should be looking after the forgotten people. And the forgotten people are those people outside this area, who probably aren't even listening to this debate—why would they? They are getting on with the job of picking their kids up from school, kids they probably now won't be able to take to sport or dancing or those sorts of things because they can't afford to. They're probably going to the grocery shops, but they're not going to have as big a hamper—they're not going to have as much at the checkout because they can't afford to. They're not going to have that meal out. They're going to be worried about how they're going to pay for their electricity prices. They're worried about how they're going to pay for their mortgages, which were once this high and now are this high. It's going to be so difficult—those rising mortgage interest rates, that rising amount of money that they have to find to pay for it and for everyday ordinary items that they shouldn't have to worry about.

The excuses can't keep coming. Labor, you've been in government 10 years—sorry, 10 months—God help us if they are in government 10 years! They've been in government for 10 months. The time for excuses and the blame game is over. Do your job. Do the job that you were elected to do—by not that many Australians. Make sure that the cost of living comes down.