Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right now, people right around the country, including in my electorate of Petrie, are facing a cost-of-living crisis under the Albanese Labor government. The last two years have seen significant increases in costs for everyone, regardless of wages. It's not just those people on low incomes who are doing it tough; people on middle incomes are also doing it tough, with 12 interest rate rises since the Albanese government was elected ensuring that the average household mortgage repayment has gone up by $25,000. Think about that for one moment. You might have been paying off a house under the former coalition government. Since the Labor government was elected, you are now paying $25,000 extra year in interest payments. This is for people who are trying to get ahead. Mortgages have gone through the roof. That's a lot of money to find every year—over $2,000 extra a month, $500 a week, just in interest payments. No wonder people are doing it tough.

And the government comes into this place and the House of Representatives and claims that more women are in the workforce and there is record workforce participation. No wonder—they can't afford to pay their bills. They've all got to get back into the workforce. And the government claim that they're doing things for child care. Well, they need to, because both parents need to work, and they're going from part-time work to full-time work just to keep their heads above water.

The government promised that life would be cheaper and the cost of living would be down under them. They promised that there'd be a $275 reduction in electricity prices for every household. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most household electricity prices have gone up by somewhere between $500 and $1,000. That's set for the long term. That ain't going back. I mean, when have you heard of prices going up and then actually coming down? This is the new standard that the people of Petrie and all Australians have to live with.

The government get in here and claim they're doing something about the cost of living by giving a measly $300 one-off payment in the budget. So they put your electricity bill up by $1,000 a year—not just this year but the year after, the year after that and the year after that—and they're going to give you a measly 300 bucks as a once-off and act as though all your problems are solved. Please—give me a break. Then they claim they're doing something through tax cuts. The tax cuts have been eaten up faster by the higher inflation that's happening. They wouldn't have even done tax cuts if the former coalition government hadn't legislated them initially. In fact, most of the Labor members that were here in the previous term voted against the tax cuts. They're claiming, 'For the cost of living, we're giving $300 for electricity, we've done tax cuts, we're doing something for medical bills,' which probably would contribute to about 10 per cent of my electorate, so there's still 90 per cent that don't get that. So the cost of living has been a huge issue.

We've also seen that real wages are at a 14-year low, with two quarters in a row of wage growth going backwards. The government claims that wages have gone up, which is true; wages have gone up, particularly in the private sector. We're seeing employees having to go to their bosses and say, 'Can I have a wage increase just to keep up with the cost of living?' The problem is that, when wages go up significantly as well, once again that fuels inflation, and that's passed on through the economy into goods and services that everyone in my electorate and around the country have to buy. So, under the Albanese government, it's a never-ending cycle of high inflation, wage growth not keeping up with inflation, and higher mortgages and interest rate payments. People are really struggling under this government.

When you combine that with the Queensland Labor government that's been in for 10 years—and for probably 25 of the last 30—and with a lack of infrastructure despite hundreds and thousands of people moving to Queensland, Queenslanders are really doing it tough. But we have good news. We've got the opportunity in October to vote out the Miles Labor government and hopefully get some infrastructure built in a timely manner by a new LNP government if it's put into government.

But in May next year we've got an opportunity to change this government. We've got an opportunity to not vote Labor—and to not vote for Greens either; that would make things even worse. The Greens have all sorts of crazy ideas, claiming they want to put on a rent freeze when 90 per cent of the housing in this country comes from the private sector. We can do better.