Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we round out this sitting of parliament and head into the winter recess, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the point we've reached after two years of this Labor government. As we head home, Australians are facing a winter of discontent. We have had four months in a row of accelerating core inflation; in fact, we are the only G10 country which has seen inflation go up since December.

On top of our homegrown inflation problem, we have now had five consecutive quarters of negative or flat GDP-per-person growth, so we are now firmly in an entrenched household recession. And households across Australia, including in my community of the Redlands, are feeling it. Since this Labor government was elected, we've seen real wages collapsing by nearly nine per cent, living standards falling by eight per cent. Household savings reduced by almost 10 per cent. Prices on goods have risen by around 10 per cent. And homeowners with a typical mortgage of $750,000 are some $35,000 a year worse off.

Despite the best efforts of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer in this chamber to try to paint a rosy picture, households in my community know that they are worse off than they were two years ago, and the data demonstrates this. Headline inflation has risen to four per cent, and core inflation, the RBA's preferred measure, has risen to 4.4 per cent in the latest figures. Perversely, at a time of rising inflation, we have economic growth stagnating. Our annual GDP growth in the latest results was a mere 1.1 per cent. Outside of the pandemic period, this is the weakest annual growth since 1991. This is increasing pressure on the RBA to further increase interest rates, which would be the 13th rate rise under Labor's watch. Over recent days, we've seen the market move to factor in the prospect of further rate rises later this year.

The most worrying aspect of these economic numbers and the economic reality facing our communities is the risk of stagflation. Stagflation is where inflation keeps rising despite slowing economic conditions. As we saw in the 1970s, the cure for stagflation is repeated punishing interest rate increases to force a reset. Sadly, that would mean a recession and significant job losses. We are certainly in a bad place, and we are there due largely to the mismanagement and wrong priorities of this government.

Labor's answer to every problem this nation is facing is more government. Sadly, the approach from Labor on every issue, whether it be energy costs, housing, manufacturing, skills shortages or defence recruitment and retention, has been to repeatedly deal with the symptoms of these problems instead of the underlying cause. In my community of the Redlands, we are seeing the real results of Labor's wrong priorities. At a time when my growing community desperately needs investment, the Labor government has cut the Stronger Communities Program, which provided $1.2 million of invaluable funding to different community and sporting groups over the last eight years; it has cut the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which has delivered $13 million to the Redlands since 2020; it has cut the Mobile Black Spot Program, which has been used to fund infrastructure upgrades on Stradbroke Island and Russell Island; and our islands have been made ineligible for the Growing Regions Program, which has seen multiple grants of over $10 million delivered to projects in other communities.

It's now clear that none of the 12 commitments promised by Labor for local projects within my electorate will be delivered by the end of this parliamentary term. Some are delayed, many are stalled and some appear totally doomed. But, while Labor has neglected the Redlands over the last two years, I've been working to ensure that long-term commitments made by the coalition to the Redlands were not abandoned by this government.

I've been able to ensure funding wasn't withdrawn for the Wellington Street-Panorama Drive duplication project from Redland Hospital stage 1 works and from the Redlands Head to Health facility and the Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative at Cleveland. In total, that's $83.6 million in federal investment saved for Redlands projects. Of course over the last two years we've also been able to see over 586,000 local community sporting and service organisations receive grants through 87 federal grants that I was happy to support through my work. Australia and the Redlands just can't afford another three years of Labor. Australians deserve better; Australians deserve a strong government that's willing to make tough decisions to get us back on track.