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

SPEAKER (): I've 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:

This government's failure to address the cost of living crisis and rising energy prices.

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

Sadly, sitting through question time today, I felt like I was in some kind of altered reality or some kind of parallel universe, because on multiple occasions during question time today we were lectured to by the Prime Minister and told that Australians have never had it better. Hardwood timber workers have never had it better. Australians with a mortgage have never had it better. Grocery shoppers have never had it better. Energy users have never had it better.

I thought I'd get a few facts on this, because we heard from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy as well that we've never had it better. In fact he told us: 'It's all okay when your bill goes up. It's okay because energy prices have gone down.' I'm still trying to work that one out. I don't know whether he thinks energy prices are going up, down or sideways, but I tell you that I know that they're actually going up: in New South Wales, by $594 dollars; in South Australia, by $512; and in South-East Queensland, by $402. They are the facts. This is an energy minister who doesn't like the facts, but they are clear.

As for the Prime Minister's altered reality 'Australians have never had it better', during the election campaign he liked to carry his gold coin around, but the sad reality is that coin is worth substantially less than it was a year ago. It's a grab bag of silver coins now, and, in a year's time, it'll be fewer silver coins, because this government has given up the ghost in fighting inflation.

The sad reality—and we should deal with realities here, not the fictions from those opposite—is that for a typical Australian family with a mortgage they are paying out extra costs in their household budget of over $25,000 a year compared with a year ago. That's higher energy bills, despite what the energy minister tries to claim in his parallel universe; that's extra mortgage costs and that's extra grocery costs. As for the things Australians love, Vegemite is up eight per cent—not in a year, in a month. They think it's funny. Australians don't think it's funny. Peanut butter soared nine per cent in a month. Yogurt was up 12 per cent in a month. Australians are trying to balance their budgets, and those opposite think it's funny. That's where it's come to.

In those rare moments when they admit there's an issue with inflation—rare moments indeed—they go looking for someone to blame. They start with Vladimir Putin. He's always their favourite. They love to go after Vladimir Putin. They love to go after floods or bushfires. They love to go after the gremlin down the bottom of the garden. But the one thing they won't admit is it's the responsibility of a good government to fight inflation. But, when you've got a spin doctor as a Treasurer, rather than a real doctor of economics—there's one over there, the member for Parramatta; he's a real doctor for economics and not a spin doctor, but we've got a spin doctor as a Treasurer, whose PhD was on Paul Keating. It was long and very thick, and there were a few numbers in there—the page numbers and the Newspoll numbers! There wasn't much economics other than that. So this is what we get: we get a government that has given up the ghost.

When we look at what economists say about this budget that we've just seen, this is what they say. BetaShares Chief Economist, David Bassanese, says, 'The budget is unambiguously expansionary.' That means pressure on inflation. S&P Global Ratings disputed the government's forecasts saying: 'We expect inflation to be stubbornly higher than the Reserve Bank's target until fiscal 2026. Handouts in today's budget add to inflationary pressures.' Richard Holden said: 'There is no question that energy subsidies or cuts in fuel excise are inflationary. It's not a matter of opinion. It's just an economic fact.' Cherelle Murphy said, 'The cost will be potentially higher interest rates, which households and businesses cannot afford. Bill Evans—who the Treasurer has been keen on quoting, but I think he's less keen now than he was—said, 'By our measure, this is an expansionary budget compared with the 10 budgets proceeding the COVID period.'

We do have coming up, in the next week or so, a Reserve Bank decision. There'll be more in the future. Whatever they choose to do in that decision, the sad reality of an expansionary budget is that interest rates will stay stronger for longer and all Australians will pay a price for that.

The Prime Minister has shown no interest in this. In fact, he mocks the issue. He thinks it's hilarious, and we heard today from the Treasury Secretary, Steven Kennedy, that the Prime Minister has not even sought any personal briefing from the government's top economic adviser on inflation. If this was this government's No. 1 issue—we know it's Australians' No. 1 issue—you'd reckon he'd asked the top adviser what to do about it. But this is not a prime minister that's interested in solving the problem; this is a prime minister that is all smear and no idea, and we've seen that in this budget.

What we know about this budget, apart from the fact it will be inflationary, is it is a big spending budget. It's a big-spending budget that has added, since those opposite got into government, $185 billion of extra spending. We've opposed $45 billion of spending just in recent months, with $18 billion of interest costs attached to it, because those things are inflationary.

The other thing we know about this budget it that it's a budget for an unmanaged big Australia. On this side of the place, we are huge supporters of Australia's successful historical immigration program. I grew up in Cooma, one of the great immigrant towns of Australia—flags all around the park for all the nations that came and worked in that region after the Second World War. But an immigration program that doesn't have the infrastructure, that doesn't have the housing and that doesn't have the services that are required to make living in a community great is an immigration program that will fail.

Today we got the latest building approval numbers from the ABS. I notice the Minister for Housing was not interested in talking about these numbers, and I wouldn't have been if I were her either, because we saw in those numbers that, in the last month alone—the last data period—total dwelling approvals have dropped by 8.1 per cent. Over the course of the last year, approvals have dropped by 24.1 per cent. If you go into the detail, you see private sector housing is down by 18.6 over the year and other dwellings, which includes units, of course, are down 35.4 per cent. And their answer to this is a Ponzi scheme. They're going to borrow a whole lot of money and gamble it. We're told it's going to be in equity, so I don't think it's going to be on the horses. Who knows? But they're going to gamble it on equities, hope like hell it makes some money and then hope like hell that they can build a couple of houses. But I tell you what: it won't be the houses required for an immigration program of 1.5 million over the next five years.

If you want to talk about overall population growth, the expectation is that, in the next two years alone, we're going to see 900,000 additional Australians, and housing approvals are collapsing. I don't know where the government thinks they're going to live or how it thinks they're going to be transported when you've got a budget that is falling in infrastructure over the course of the forwards and since we were in government.

We are seeing from those opposite a big-spending, big-taxing, big-government, big-Australia budget that will not serve the needs of Australia. It is adding taxes on income, on farmers, on truckies, on franking credits and on superannuation. We are opposing those things. We're proudly opposing those things. They are our policies because that is the right policy for Australia. Those opposite are delivering the wrong policies for an Australia facing an inflation crisis that needs to be addressed.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the end of the day, it comes down to the policies. We can move motions and trash-talk each other here in the House, but, at the end of the day, it comes down to the policies. The opposition can't avoid the inescapable fact that they have no policies to help Australians get through this difficult period where they're feeling the pinch of cost of living. The member for Hume had 10 minutes there—10 minutes of feigned outrage—but you didn't hear one policy from the member for Hume. I challenge those that are coming after the member for Hume to outline one policy—just one policy—that they're going to implement that will help Australians get through this difficult period.

We all understand that Australians are feeling the pinch, that inflation has eaten into their real incomes. That's something every Labor MP and senator knows. That's why we've been consulting our communities about how we put in place policies to deal with those issues. The government's listened and responded by implementing policies that assist households and small businesses through this difficult period by easing the cost of living. What we don't see from the opposition are any policies to assist Australians with their energy costs or with their costs of living—not one policy. You can yell and scream and move motions, but what matter are the policies.

The Albanese government has acted. As soon as we got elected, we moved to ensure that we reduced the impact of electricity prices. After a decade of inaction from those opposite, when it came to a transition to renewable energy the outcome was increasing electricity prices and energy prices. When they were in government, they actually moved to change the law to hide those energy cost increases from the Australian people. They hid them. We didn't do things like that. That's immature. We took a mature approach and, instead of trying to hide those electricity price increases, we came up with policies to help cushion the impacts for households and small businesses. It was in the form of our energy price relief plan. We introduced price caps on electricity and gas prices—a cap of $125 a tonne for coal and a $12-a-gigajoule cap on gas. We partnered with the states to deliver energy bill rebates for households and small businesses. Those rebates begin on 1 July. We introduced a mandatory code of conduct for the east coast gas market to ensure that we were dealing with the supply issues. They are some of the short-term policies that this government has implemented to help Australians during this difficult period.

We also have a longer term outlook, ensuring that we're implementing policies to help households and small businesses improve their energy efficiency and energy costs through the Household Energy Upgrades Fund. That was announced in the budget a couple of weeks ago. We're introducing a fuel vehicle emissions standard to ensure that over the longer term we can reduce the motoring costs of Australians by introducing more fuel-efficient vehicles into the Australian market and stopping producers dumping the vehicles that they can't sell in Europe, the United States and Asia but they can sell here in Australia because we don't have a fuel efficiency standard. That's another long-term policy of this government. They're the policies Labor that is implementing to help Australians with their energy costs.

What are the policies of the opposition? There aren't any. There are no policies to help Australians with their energy costs. What did the opposition do when Labor introduced these policies into the House? They opposed them and voted against them. They can't escape the fact that they voted against the price caps in energy markets. They voted against the measures that were put in place by the government to reduce the impacts on people's electricity bills. That would be okay and I could understand it if they had an alternative policy. It's okay to vote against our policies. We understand that. But you've got to come up with an alternative. Anyone can vote against something, but when it comes to the alternative that's where they fail. Australians are rightly asking: 'What would you do to assist households and small businesses to get through this difficult period?'

Our support for Australians doesn't end with electricity prices. There are other areas outlined in the budget where we are assisting Australian households and small businesses. We're reducing health costs. The largest indictment, in my view, on the previous government was the decimation of Medicare. They underfunded Medicare and it resulted in GPs starting to charge co-payments of their patients. It's been happening across the country for the last four or five years. We have listened to what the Australian people have said, and they're disgusted at the undermining of Medicare. We have acted. We've tripled the bulk-billing incentive in the budget to ensure that under 16s and concession card holders can continue to have-bulk-billed consultations with their doctors. That policy is so good that those opposite are supporting it. They're actually supporting our policy, and we welcome that. That's good. That's a good thing. We're also reducing the cost of medicines. We're reducing the co-payment under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We're introducing 60-day dispensing.

It doesn't end there. We're helping families as well. Our cheaper childcare policy begins on 1 July, where we will increase the childcare subsidy for most families and remove the cap on the family payment as well. That begins on 1 July. In the budget we outlined our policy to enhance Paid Parental Leave as well.

What's been the approach of those opposite? They've opposed those policies. Have they come up with an alternative? I can't hear it. I dare say we're not going to hear it from the rest of them when they speak on this.

When it comes to housing, we know that Australians are struggling with the cost, and, again, the government is acting. In the budget we've increased the rate of rent assistance to help some of the most vulnerable Australians to deal with their housing costs. We're reducing the withholding tax on build-to-rent schemes to ensure that there's an incentive for builders to supply more housing to the market. We have a housing future fund from which we propose to build 30,000 additional properties across the country. But guess what? It's opposed by those opposite. Even worse, they've teamed up with the Greens to stop that going through the parliament. Again, what is your alternative? Where is your alternative policy? We'll wait to see if any of them outline it when they speak.

We're also ensuring that some of the most vulnerable Australians are not left behind. We're increasing JobSeeker, we're increasing single parent payments and we're increasing support for Australians' incomes. We've supported wage increases in the minimum wage case. We're supporting an increase of aged-care workers. Again, these are all opposed by the opposition. Where is the alternative policy? It's simply not there.

At the end of the day it comes down to the policies. We all know that inflation has put pressure on household incomes. We all know that Australians are feeling the pinch, but what Australians want to know is what you are going to do about it. How are you going to assist them? The Albanese government is acting. I've just outlined 15 policies that we have implemented or are in the process of implementing to help Australians get through this difficult period. If you want to be the alternative government, then you've got to outline policies, but you haven't got any. You do a lot of talking, you do a lot of trash talking, you move a lot of motions, but you have no policies. Outline just one.

Now, the mover of the motion had 10 minutes. He didn't outline anything. I thought: 'I'll try to do some research to find out if there are any. I haven't heard any from those opposite.' So I went to the Liberal Party website. There's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Do you think I found any policies? There were these big, bold letters there, with a photo of the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: 'standing up for hardworking Australians'. I thought: 'Okay, I'll click on this to see if there are any policies and see how they're doing them.' There's nothing there. There's nothing behind it. There's a press release from the Leader of the Opposition.

Then I went to Peter Dutton's website. I thought that maybe he would have something. I didn't waste as much time there, only two minutes. Again, there were no policies—not a single policy—but there was a link to his budget reply speech. I thought: 'I'll have a read of this in case I missed something when he delivered it.' They did have two policies in that. One was to allow Australians to raid their super to buy their first home. But guess what? That's not a new policy; that's Morrison's policy, so you're picking up old policies and rehashing those.

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

Assistant Minister, you need to use the correct title for the reference that you used for the member.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Cook. The other one was to pick up and support Labor's policies. They've adopted our bulk-billing incentives and they're expanding the parental payment. You're adopting our policies, but you can't come up with any of your own. At the end of the day it comes down to the policies, and you can't escape the fact that you have none to help Australians.

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

There is one policy that we won't be implementing, and that is the policy of misleading the Australian people. It's not that I want to use a prop, but here it is, my mobile phone, where I read: 'An Anthony Albanese, Labor government'—

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just outline one.

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

I'm going to do one, thank you, Assistant Minister for the Republic; just your title probably says it all—'cut power bills by $275 a year.' There's no asterisk. There's no saying that it's going to be by 2025 or during that particular financial year. It just states that they're going to reduce power bills by $275 a year, and those opposite know it was a fib.

Here's a policy from the member for Kingsford Smith: 'We will reinstate the money that your government has ripped out of regional Australia.' Regional Australia, which carried—

Government members interjecting—

I was silent while you spoke, so give me due respect by doing the same. You have ripped money out of regional Australia and the country areas which carried the burden during COVID-19 through resources and those things the Treasurer says that we sell overseas. I'll name them. They're gas, coal and iron ore. Labor demonises those industries. Then, of course, there's agriculture.

What we will do—and here's a good policy to start with—is reinstate the money that you have stolen out of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. We will restore the Stronger Communities program, which has helped electorates right across this nation, not just in regional areas.

Regional areas are particularly doing it tough. I have an anecdote from my own home town of Wagga Wagga, where a charity has been stretched to the limit as more and more people cry out for help amidst the crippling cost-of-living crisis. But don't just take my word for it. It was on the front page of my local paper, the Daily Advertiser, on 20 May. It talks of the Salvation Army's welfare arm, Doorways. It's been inundated with people seeking financial assistance to pay bills and trying to get basic necessities. The lady there, the program coordinator, Jen Cameron, said, 'On a daily basis we're seeing an increase in those who have never received support before.' She said that service providers, including herself, are getting mentally exhausted by the sheer demand at the moment. She quoted people of all ages who are struggling, recalling an 18-year-old woman whom Doorways has recently started working with. She has no transport, no microwave—nothing to even cook with. And of course as the cold winter months are about to set in, this problem is only going to be exacerbated.

The recent federal budget was a real missed opportunity for families and businesses right across Australia, particularly in the regions. At a time when cost-of-living pressures are mounting, the budget did nothing to provide relief for those struggling to make ends meet. But, prior to the election—

And Member for Hawke, I know you were a secretary of the labour movement. I'm not quite sure whether you're really in touch with those people who are doing it tough. But let me tell you: 97 times prior to the election the now Prime Minister promised that there would be reduced power bills. Well, he knew in his heart of hearts that that wasn't going to occur, and you all know that it has not occurred. Yet we get the minister for power increases, the member for McMahon, coming to the dispatch box and talking about lowering power prices, when we know that is the complete opposite. These reductions have not occurred, and it is hurting everyday, ordinary Australians. It is hurting small business. More than 150,000 small businesses—and this is just in New South Wales—are going to see their electricity bills go up by $1,310 per year. In the same state, we're going to see households' energy prices go up by nearly $600. How do they find that money? They start taking changes to their lifestyle—they don't take their kids to sport; they don't do the sorts of things that they would normally do, because they have to pay for the increased power costs.

When the coalition was in office in our last term, power prices went down by eight per cent for households, 10 per cent of businesses and 12 per cent for industries. But we see those opposite coming in here, talking a big game about manufacturing, talking about producing things here, yet doing the exact opposite. They're sending their emissions offshore, they're sending businesses offshore and they're sending companies broke. And this is happening right across Australia. They're doing nothing about it, yet we hear the 'minister for the republic' asking, 'What's a policy?' Well, I'll you what a policy is: start protecting regional Australia, start sticking up for families, start doing everything you said you were going to do prior to the election but have neglected since. That's what you should start doing, and you should start doing it now.

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

Well, it sounds like those opposite have simply had memories wiped. They've forgotten how they ridiculed Labor when we committed to seeing those on the lowest incomes get a dollar-an-hour pay rise because that would help with cost of living. These are workers who've been denied pay rises. It was an intended policy by those opposite. In government they did have policies, and that was the sort of policy they had. Those opposite have also forgotten that they opposed the caps on wholesale energy markets that we worked very hard to achieve, to make sure that the gas and electricity wholesale prices were not going to go as high as planned. But they've forgotten that they opposed it. They've also forgotten that they voted against the energy relief bill for customers—for people who want to be able to switch on the lights. And they have the nerve to come here day after day—and again today—and pretend that when they were in control they actually did things to help people.

Well, they've clearly forgotten that, when inflation was starting to take a hold in the second half of their last full year in government, in 2021, when I was talking about it and highlighting the need for action, they were just gaslighting me—gaslighting me and everybody else who could see the signs that things were not going well. I know they don't like being called 'the no-alition', so I won't call them that, because they don't like that. They're just a group of people who watch things happen, passively—just let them happen.

Well, we're not prepared to do that. We're not prepared to just stand here, in government, knowing that things are tough for people, from a combination of inflation, interest rate hikes and electricity price rises—which everybody knows are, in huge part, driven by international forces that we just can't control. We're not prepared to stand here. We're certainly not going to do what they did in government, which was to say: 'Oh, it's not our fault. It's nothing to do with us. We'll take all the upside but none of the downside.' So that's the difference between them and us.

When you think about the things that we've done around inflation, and when we've saved money in the budget, finding $40 billion in savings in the last budget—while those opposite found zero in the nearly 10 years they were there; they just kept spending more and more, with so little to show for it—that has put downward pressure on inflation. So has reducing power bills, and cutting medication costs, because you're reducing the amount of money that flows through. So does reducing childcare fees, and our childcare changes for early learning that come in from 1 July will take money out of the system, inasmuch as families won't be forced to pay more. The other thing that puts downward pressure on inflation is lowering the cost of getting to a GP and other health costs. Bit by bit, we've worked methodically and carefully to look at how we can achieve those things.

Now I know the word 'policy'—and this is something else the others don't really know how to do—for most people just means taking action. It means having a purpose and having an idea that you then implement—not just talking about it, but actually doing it. And we've done that, around cost of living, without being inflationary. That has been the key thing: doing these things without driving up inflation, because it's very easy to throw money around. They did that quite well on the other side—they just threw it around. But that doesn't help you with inflation.

So it does require a much more intelligent approach, and in energy we're seeing the benefits of that. Now, the default market offer—something none of us thought we would talk about ever, in our lives, I think, or most of us! But what it shows in New South Wales is that the steps we've taken on energy alone mean an eight per cent decrease for those who are eligible for the rebates that we've funded along with the state government—that's a decrease in power prices. For those who are not eligible, instead of it being a 40 per cent increase in power prices, it's a 21 per cent increase.

So, no, it isn't good enough yet, but it's a start. In one year, we've done more to tackle these issues than I saw from those opposite in a decade.

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

I've tried to make it a practice in this place to compliment you when you deserve it and criticise us when it's warranted. I'd like to lead with this compliment for the other side—and I'll single out the member for Hawke as he leaves the chamber.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, I'll stay for a compliment!

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

Yes, I will. The Labor Party are very good at campaigning. You're very good campaigners—not so good at governing. I want to use Victoria as an example, and the member for Hawke—a very effective campaigner in Victoria. And we've heard the hubris from the other side, where they're counting all the other seats they want to take, including mine—though it's not even mine; it's the people's seat, the seat of Menzies. So you're not just happy with the election result; you're counting your chickens before they hatch.

Let's look at Victoria, where my seat is. The state of Victoria is not in a good state. The state of Victoria, which has had Labor governments for so long, is now the highest taxing state. The state of Victoria now has higher debt than all of Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania combined. When we think about the different parts of Victoria that are hurting most, I was struck recently by the Commonwealth Bank's assessment of which elements of society are actually feeling it harder than others when it comes to the cost of living. What struck me, when you compare CPI spending from the first quarter of this year to the first quarter of last year, those under 50 are doing it particularly tough. Again, the Labor Party like to bank people who are younger than 50 and say, 'Well, they'll always vote for us.' At the moment, those who are between 25 and 29 are doing it particularly tough. Their spending for the first quarter of this year is down more than any other category when compared to a year ago.

So again, when it comes to campaigning, those opposite like to brag and hold on to particular constituencies, including young Australians. But young Australians are finding it harder than ever to save for a house deposit, harder than ever to put food on the table, harder than ever to get ahead. They are now, particularly in the state of Victoria and where I'm from in Melbourne, asking what it is that a Labor government does for them. They can look no further than the state Labor government and ask, 'Is my quality of life better? Is it better than it was a year ago? If I'm going to look ahead the next five to 10 years, maybe I should look at how governance has been conducted in my home state of Victoria.'

Melbourne used to be the most liveable city in the world from 2000 to 2017. Since then it has slipped bit by bit and it is now ranked tenth. So people of Victoria are entitled to ask, 'In addition to the highest taxes, in addition to the highest debt, what is it that a Labor government is doing to help me have a better quality of life, spend more time with my family and do the things that make me happy?' The answer is not much except spin and campaigning, the things those opposite like to brag about and probably are good at, but they are not so good at governing. When young Australians looked at this budget, what did they learn? It confirmed a few things that they should be worried about, that real wages are stagnant despite the rhetoric, that the cost of living will continue to rise despite the talking points, that gas and electricity bills will continue to skyrocket. It doesn't matter what the media releases say, it's what those opposite are paying. Those opposite promised a reduction and people are paying more; that is on you.

They also note that inflation is remaining stubbornly high. We heard self-serving comparisons, including from the Prime Minister, about where we rank in inflation. The most important measurement of inflation is core inflation because it excludes those items that are more volatile and more sticky. When you exclude those, we have a record that we should not be proud of. The reason we should not be proud of it is because this budget and this government are adding to inflation, therefore, hurting all Australians but particularly younger Australians, who don't have any more spare money to spend.

Don't take our word for it. You may say, 'Of course, that's what a Liberal would say. That is what someone on this side would say.' We saw after the budget was delivered Chris Richardson say that this budget raised the chance that those in the RBA will 'swing the baseball bat' again. S&P Global Ratings said, 'Today's budget may add to inflationary pressures,' and BetaShares chief economist, David Bassanese said this was 'unambiguously expansionary'. When we look to the Labor Party, don't just look at the talking points. They may have hubris on campaigning but, for governing, it's not so good.

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

I've been going to the country shows in my electorate, and cost-of-living issues are very, very important to people in my electorate. That's why this budget is providing enormous assistance in bulk-billing incentives, cheaper child care, electricity bill relief and support for jobseeker increases. But, for those who might be listening, this MPI was brought by the opposition. There are four members opposite. Two of them are on duty, no doubt, so they're here. This is such an important issue that those opposite have three people in the chamber now—three people! Where are they? Where is their frontbench? There's not a single person there except the member for Gippsland, who, by the way, had a great question time. There is one person on duty; none of their frontbenchers are here. They think cost of living is a great issue. The previous speaker, I know he knocked off his predecessor in a pre-selection but it was the wrong legislature. He should have been in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. He talked about Victoria, but I hate to tell him: the people of Victoria have re-elected Daniel Andrews again and again. It's just not working.

I would have more respect for those opposite if they had voted for our energy price relief plan, but they didn't. I would have more respect for them if they supported our JobSeeker increase, but they won't. I would have more support and respect for them if they supported our Housing Australia Future Fund, providing 30,000 social and community houses, but they will not do so. I would have more support for them if they had actually supported wage increases in the minimum wage increase case, but they didn't, every single time it came up when they were in power for nine years. It's not what you say; it's what you do. They failed. They forgot what they were doing for the last nine years. There's a political amnesia over there: 'Don't look at our record.' They didn't support minimum wage increases. They didn't support the 15 per cent wage increases for the aged-care sector that we're providing for with the $11 billion in this budget. They didn't support that at all for nine years. They didn't support it at all. What about their energy price policies, their great energy reforms, their 20 failed policies? Remember the National Energy Guarantee, the NEG? Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull didn't last 24 hours. They couldn't settle on a way to deal with issues of price relief, so wholesale prices and retail prices went up and up under them.

If you're coming to this place and talking about cost-of-living relief, how about you vote for it? How about you sport the policies that will address this issue? How about doing something about it when you were in government? Honestly! We got the Leader of the Opposition who wanted to cut $50 billion out of health and also make you pay a $7 guarantee every time you went to the doctor and end bulk-billing. We're trebling the incentive. There are 105,000 people in my electorate and 53 medical practices who will benefit by this. Those opposite did nothing about it. This is a huge cost-of-living relief in my electorate. What about cheaper child care? We have a situation where 8,900 families in my electorate will get cheaper child care from 1 July this year. Those opposite did nothing about it for nine years. You come in here all hyperbole, all exaggeration and all hypothetical, because those opposite have got no politics. The Leader of the Opposition was talking about some worthy gambling reform in his budget-in-reply speech, but no costings in relation to anything, no policies that will address the cost of living.

Today we had about the 19th MPI. Those opposite don't believe the MPIs are actually worthy of debate—if they believed it, they'd be here. None of their frontbenchers are here except the member for Gippsland, who is on duty. So don't come in here and effectively say to us that this is a big issue when you can't put people in the bleachers. There are not even any backbenchers—there are a couple on duty over there. It's simply not good enough to claim that the cost of living is important to you and important to your constituents. We know these issues are important to your constituents, but it isn't to those members. I hope everyone who is listening, in seats all around the country and have a look where their MP is, because they're not in the chamber debating this at the moment. Not at all.

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

Wow. Going by the member for Blair's standards, I don't have to say much to those at home other than: look at the government front bench. It's an opportunity for them to talk about the cost of living, and the only minister here—by the member for Blair's own admission—is forced to be here. We know the cost of living isn't a big issue for this government because actions are very important. When the Prime Minister was asked a question about the cost of living today in question time, and the price of groceries going up, what did those on the backbench and the frontbench do? They laughed. They laughed about the cost of living. We used an example of Vegemite going up eight per cent. That's representative of many products in grocery stores that are going up. We will not be lectured to sanctimoniously about the cost of living because those on the government benches laughed when asked about the cost of living today. That's what they did. They laughed at the Australian people. Because the Australian people are struggling every day to pay bills. This government, in MPIs, spends more time talking about us in the opposition than it does about outlining its policies. The reason its talks about the opposition is that its policies are not working and the Australian people know that. They know that every day when they go to the shops. They know that every time they receive an energy bill.

I was out yesterday at Yarra Valley Hilltop, an amazing business in my electorate of Casey. They started just over 20 years ago with a vision to support the agricultural community of Casey. They started from nothing. They now employ over 100 local people, manufacturing food products. One of their best products is their strawberry jam. They bring in all local strawberries.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is this, condiment week for you?

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

So we're making jokes and interjecting about cost of living. Says it all! Condiments—they're things that people pay for every day. When you're doing it tough, vegemite on toast is probably all you can afford for breakfast. So it is serious. If you want to interject and laugh, that's exactly the point. You don't get it. You don't understand, because you haven't had to live the situation where you have to choose.

So condiments are important and strawberry jam is important because the farmers of Casey are able to sell their seconds to that company that can manufacture them. I met with them yesterday. Their energy bills have gone up $200,000 in the last 12 months. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy can sit here and talk about how great he is, but guess what. The policy is not working. It's gone up $200,000 in 12 months. The next bit that's coming for that business is that they'd signed a good contract on gas, and that's about to finish. They're projecting another $200,000 increase in their gas bill.

So we're interjecting again. It's a laughing matter that businesses are struggling. I'll tell you what. I've worked in food manufacturing. If you don't have gas, you can't make the products. You need gas. It's not an option. You have a to spend that.

What happens for these food manufacturers is that raw materials go up. The jars are going up. The finished product is going up, and the Australian people are paying more. And gas prices are going up. There are not any solutions from this government, because they're not working.

A government member: There's a war in Ukraine. What do you want us to do?

It always comes back to politics with this government. Every time you think of cost of living, the Australian people need to remember the quote from the Australian National Secretary of the ALP, Paul Erickson, when he addressed the ALP party room. Someone was nice enough to leak that to the media. He said, 'You must look like you are responding first and foremost.' That's the devil in the detail: 'look like'. He didn't tell the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the ministers that they should solve Australia's cost-of-living crisis. He said they needed to look like they were solving it. That's what this government is all about.

In the 30 seconds I've got left, I say we already know manufacturing is struggling but we also know Australians are struggling with their real wages going backwards in this high-inflation environment that is being fuelled by this government. Bill Evans, the Westpac chief economist, points to this budget as being more expansionary and stimulatory than any of the budgets in the 10 years prior to the pandemic. At a time when budgets should be reducing inflation, this budget is driving inflation and causing the cost of goods to go up. (Time expired)

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

It's always interesting to hear those opposite talking about our caucus room. You can understand maybe they might want to join us there one day!

If the opposition wanted to have any credibility about energy prices, they had an opportunity last year to support our price relief plan, and they voted against that. They try to pretend they didn't. There were a number of speeches in here where you'd think that that was a moment that disappeared from their collective memory.

I welcome any opportunity to talk about climate action, energy transition and tackling cost of living under the Albanese Labor government. Just last week, I joined the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Assistant Minister for Climate Change, as well as my ACT colleague, the member for Fenner, down in the suburb of Stirling—a sterling part of the electorate of Bean! We were there on a typically cold Canberra morning—I know that many of you have been experiencing cold Canberra mornings in the last week and a half—to visit the home of a local resident. Todd's family home is the gold-standard for energy efficiency in Australia, with double glazing, insulation and solar panels installed over the last few years. As a consequence, his family's energy bills have fallen substantially.

The Albanese government wants to make it easier for households like Todd's and small businesses to access energy savings and upgrades. That's why we're investing $1.6 billion from our recent budget to provide various means of supporting households and businesses to transition to more energy efficient homes and businesses, to convert to electricity where they choose to and to invest in forms of renewable energy and storage. We are facilitating this, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's low-interest loans, directly into social housing through a partnership with the states and territories, and, of course, there are tax concessions for small businesses to do so. We on this side of the house know that when you can save on energy, you save on bills.

When the Australian Energy Regulator provided the government with a default market offer forecast late last year, customers were facing price rises of between 40 and 50 per cent, price rises that were untenable. We on this side understood that and we acted. There was no endless press release about what we might do, no lump of coal, no hi-vis—there was action. We brought parliament back urgently, and the legislation was passed before Christmas.

Those opposite, as I said before, voted against it. Their Christmas present to the Australian people was to vote against that price relief. The opposition voted for higher energy bills for households and small businesses, yet every day they come back to this chamber and like to pretend that's not what they did. But of course, thanks to that decisive action, the AER has confirmed that power bills are up to $500 less for residential customers than they would have been without the government's intervention and up to $1,300 less than they would have otherwise been for small businesses. I think we know who the real party for small business is.

This government's Energy Price Relief Plan has taken the sting out of power prices. Here, in the ACT, we are run on 100 per cent renewables, and, as a result, the impact of power price increases has been a lot less here than in other jurisdictions. We on this side want more of Australia to benefit from long-term, ambitious renewable energy policy.

What is the alternative to this government's detailed and deliverable energy policy? Those opposite would have you believe that only they have the solution, and they have gone nuclear. It is The Simpsons answer to energy prices. Their solution is a form of electricity that would be ready to go in almost 10 years, if we're lucky, and we know that the cost of it is prohibitively high.

This government is taking real action on energy relief. In the short term, we've intervened to lessen the increase of energy prices despite the global pressure on prices. We are investing in households and small businesses to ensure they can reduce energy usage and save on household bills. We are lowering emissions, we are lowering energy usage and we are lowering prices.

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

I think I heard the last speaker indicate that energy bills were on track to increase by a further $500 than they already have were it not for measures the government put in place last year. In my home state of South Australia, the default market offer has gone up by $500. So the previous speaker is indicating that with the policies they took to the last election—so before they undertook their intervention—the average bill in my home state would have gone up by $1,000 a year when you went to an election saying you would cut bills by $275. You are now admitting that, prior to your purported effective intervention before Christmas, the average power bill in my home state of South Australia would have gone up by more than $1,000. What an absolute disgrace. And now we're being told to be grateful that they've only gone up by more than $500 in South Australia and it could have been a whole lot worse!

Another speaker mentioned how, when he's out talking to constituents, they're absolutely raising issues around the cost of living. Well, I'm sure they're satisfied with that answer of 'You should be grateful; it could be even worse than it is right now; you should thank me'! This is like the commissar who doesn't give enough bread to the Soviet family and they complain and say, 'I can't feed my family; there's not enough bread,' and he says, 'You should be grateful you're getting any bread at all.' That is the position of the government. When they went to an election saying they were going to cut people's energy bills, apparently people should now be grateful that their bills, in this one financial year, in the state of South Australia, are 'only' going up by more than $500, because it could have been more than $1,000. Imagine being proud of that. Imagine coming into this chamber and reading out the talking points. Imagine the pollsters saying, 'Just stick with that line—that it could be even worse than it already is; I think that'll get us through this great fraud that's being perpetuated upon the people, during a campaign that said that power prices would be cut.' And now people should be grateful that their bills are 'only' going up with the velocity that they are.

It's an appalling circumstance, and there are people doing it particularly tough who are being mocked. Apparently the prices of jam and Vegemite going up is something to laugh about. Well, those people are probably not watching parliament being telecast right now. They can't afford to be sitting at home watching this debate. But if they saw members of this parliament laughing about prices of condiments going up by that amount—nothing could demonstrate being out of touch more than mocking people who struggle to even purchase the basic groceries from their household budget. Laughing about that is particularly low. We should be in here talking about how to help those people, not mocking them and poking fun at them.

We've got a difficult cycle starting to unravel upon our economy as inflation remains persistently high, and elements of the household budget going up dramatically more than inflation. Inflation is running at seven per cent, and we know electricity prices in my home state of South Australia for the average household are going up by more than 20 per cent. That is in the future. So the future cost to households is much worse than it is right now, and if they're telling members opposite, out at their supermarket listening posts and street corners and while doorknocking and phone canvassing, that things are tough now, then, regrettably, any member in this chamber has to say: 'Well, it's about to get much worse. You see, that electricity bill you got recently that you thought was tough to pay and you had to make a difficult decision about whether or not you could have a family holiday later in the year, unfortunately the next one you get is going to be 24 per cent higher if you're on the average household bill in the state of South Australia. That's the future you can look forward to.' Be grateful about how tough it is right now, according to the government, because it's going to get a whole lot worse as these price rises continue to flow through the economy. And that's at a time when real wages are going backwards.

So, as all the relevant costs in the household budget increase, the only thing that's not increasing is your pay packet to cover those costs, and that means making very difficult decisions. Laughing about jam, Vegemite and litres of milk might bring out the student politician in some, but it's no laughing matter. There are Australian families who are doing it really tough right now, and people in this chamber should take that very, very seriously.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's another sitting day here, and another absurd MPI from a group of people who are utterly lacking in credibility when it comes to talking about the cost of living and pressures facing people right across Australia. Forgive me, Deputy Speaker, for appearing quite angry while speaking on this MPI. It's because I am. I'm really angry that, after a decade of childcare costs increasing, of out-of-pocket Medicare costs increasing, and of a deliberate strategy to keep wages low and keep workers in insecure work, those opposite have the absolute gall to walk in here and all of a sudden pretend to be on the side of working Australians, working people. I think the fact that we've seen so many state elections right across Australia where the Liberals have been voted out, where what the Liberals have to offer has been rejected, means the Australian people have gotten pretty good at seeing through the lies of those opposite. I think those opposite are pretty brave to come here, though—to give them some credit—every single day and try this on. Perhaps they deserve a bit of congratulations for their courage—or perhaps it's just shamelessness. Since we've gotten into government, we have been working really hard to relieve the pressure on families because we do understand that people are under an enormous amount of pressure across our communities.

We've heard some statements from those opposite about the importance of manufacturing in this country. I've always been a massive supporter of manufacturing and the good, secure jobs, with good wages, that the manufacturing sector provides. So I'm a bit shocked to hear those opposite come in here and talk so much about how amazing manufacturing is, because, when given the opportunity to vote for manufacturing and vote for good jobs, secure jobs that pay workers well right across the country, those opposite said no.

It's pretty appalling, too, to hear those opposite talking about what we need to do to support young people, when of course they failed a generation of young people when it came to taking action on climate change. We also saw during the very worst parts of the pandemic that universities were absolutely abandoned by those opposite, which has had a really devastating effect in my electorate on students studying at Monash and Deakin, particularly postgraduate students. And those opposite really failed to have much vision at all when it came to improving the quality of jobs for young people. I'm really delighted that one of the recent policies that we've enacted will ensure that superannuation is paid to people on payday. That will have a real effect on young people, because it is largely young people and those in insecure work who have suffered from the loss of that entitlement in the past. I'm so delighted to be part of a government that is taking action there, which will improve the cost-of-living pressures for young people not just now—and with those other measures that I have described—but also in the future, when it comes to their retirement.

In my electorate we have around 7½ thousand people that will benefit from the increase to the Child Care Subsidy—cheaper child care—which will commence on 1 July. I'm really pleased to see that, particularly because we saw the cost of child care rise under the decade that those opposite presided over, under their woeful government.

We also saw aged-care workers recently get a much-deserved pay increase. For those hardworking people in the care economy, largely women, that's going to make a huge difference to their cost-of-living pressures. Again we are reminded of the absolute contempt those opposite had for working people and for quality wages for a decade, to the extent of ridiculing the now Prime Minister when he suggested that the lowest paid workers in our economy should get a pay rise. It is absolutely disgraceful. I'm so glad Australians rejected that nonsense from those opposite.

We're tripling the Medicare rebates for families. In my electorate alone, we saw out-of-pocket costs to see a GP rise by 38 per cent. If you want to talk about inflation, that's a pretty significant cost-of-living increase and pressure on households.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is taking cost-of-living pressures across the country seriously. I find the opposition's tactics in these MPIs utterly bizarre.

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

The discussion has now concluded.