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

Shortly, we will hear from the Treasurer about the state of the economic books for the Commonwealth. That matters in two key respects. First, it directly matters to the state of household budgets and how they are doing. Second, it matters when we zoom out. I see there are schoolchildren visiting up above, and you are very welcome. It's good to see you. There's a document here that's about you. It's called the Intergenerational report. It is a report that first started in 2002, and it's designed for us in this place to look forward 40 years to see how we're doing and what the impact might be on you.

I'm sure most of you may be about 10, 11 or 12—I apologise if I got that wrong. Imagine yourselves about our age, what this economy looks like and what our country looks like. I want to briefly tell you what it looks like in the last Intergenerational report, which was done in 2023. It looked forward to 2063. On page 144, there is a graph that matters to you and that should matter to all of us. The report says that real Australian government spending per person before COVID was $22,000. Immediately after COVID it was $24,000. It's now peaking at $28,000 per person. That's a lot of money, especially when you consider that the average household, the average person, earns just over $100,000. Half of Australians earn $65,000 or less. In this document it said, if that spending is not addressed, then adjusting for inflation, when you are our age, you'll be paying $40,000 per person. Imagine you're earning $100,000, as the average wage, and $ 40,000 of that is just for what we spend here! Then there's state spending and your local government. You won't have much left over.

When the Treasurer wrote this document, 'Capitalism after the crises', published 1 February 2023, he didn't mention the Intergenerational report. Instead, he questions the fundamentals of capitalism, and how has that worked out for families? Let's test the numbers. When you look at actual family budgets right now, here in 2025, you see that average mortgage payments have gone up by 57 per cent. In the Melbourne inner city, the average mortgage is about $660,000. That is almost $19,000 worse off. If you're renting, the costs are up by 32 per cent. That's a per annum increase of almost $9,000. Groceries are up 32 per cent. When we say groceries, what do we mean by that? We mean the essentials—milk, up 18 per cent; bread, up 25 per cent; eggs, up 35 per cent. It's no wonder families are going to sleep hungry at night, it's no wonder food banks have never seen more demand, and it's no wonder families have a sense of despair that this government and this Treasurer do not have their interests at heart here and now.

From the government, we hear a selective quotation about how family budgets are actually doing. We'll hear a component part that is repeated in a way that demands gratitude in return. Looking at the increase in average wages—and there has been an increase in average wages—when you add to that the subsidies that have been given, that's a good news story, or so the government will tell you. But they're only telling you part of the picture. What they don't say is that the total cost-of-living rise for families in Australia is $24,000. That's this side of the equation. They say you should be very grateful for the subsidies that they've given, the increased wages that you have seen, which only come to $8,300. So you're down $24,000 and up $8,000, and you should be very grateful for that!

But that's not all. We have seen, as people's wages rise and they move through several different income tax brackets, them lose even more, to the point that families are now down. After the wage increases, after all the subsidies, the average family is down $10,636. Think about that. The average family in Australia is over $10,000 worse off after all of the good news that this government and this Treasurer tell you that you should be grateful for. The reason is that this government cannot live within its means. And, because it can't live within its means, it is creating a burden on families in the here and now, and it is creating an unexplainable and unjustifiable burden on you for when you are our age. So it is important that we, as a government, live within our means. If we don't, families will continue to suffer.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This matter before the House today is a real change of pace for those opposite. I say that because I think all Australians have just become so used to the culture wars waged by the Liberals. All they have gotten from this opposition leader and his Liberal colleagues so far, when they consider the cost of living, is nothing but dog whistling in a shameless attempt to win votes.

Instead of fighting the cost of living, we've seen the Liberals fight public servants. They're claiming, with absolutely no evidence, that disrupting the jobs of 36,000 Australians will somehow make your bills lower and your food cheaper, and that by attacking the services that everyday Aussies rely on—playing with cuts to the NDIS, Medicare, DVA and Centrelink—those same everyday Aussies will be better off. I'd love to see the maths on that, but the Liberals are refusing to tell us.

Instead of fighting the cost of living, those opposite have also chosen to fight dual citizens, with this opposition leader pushing a national referendum to deport them. You'll notice that his colleagues are desperately trying to hose this down. It's never easy when your leader says the quiet part out loud.

That, again, seems to be distracting the Liberals from the cost of living, because, instead of focusing on that, the Liberals are working to dismantle the source of over 70 per cent of energy generation in South Australia by attacking renewables. Again, it seems they've come up with that on a hunch that doing so will win over the public, because there's no evidence at all that their policy—a $600 billion nuclear fantasy—would do anything to benefit everyday Aussies or fight the cost of living, but there is evidence that their policy will cost Aussies at least twice as much compared to the trajectory we're currently on. The worst part is that the Liberals know that. They know their nuclear policy is a complete shambles. They know the independent report they tried throwing in front of it is riddled with flaws. And we know they're aware of this because the Liberals haven't mentioned their nuclear policy all year. They don't want you to remember it!

Having said all of this, I'll return to how I started. This is a change of pace, because, finally, the Liberals are suddenly concerned with the cost of living. It has taken them nearly three years to get to this point—not including the last nine before that, which they apparently refuse to believe ever happened. That explains why there is absolutely zero awareness of the devastating effect the Liberal government has had on my community, or any understanding of why costs are higher. I'll happily tell the House what the Labor government is doing to fight the cost of living, and maybe—just maybe—the Liberals will do something to contribute to that. That would be more than they did in those 12 years.

When Labor came to government, inflation had a six in front of it and was rising. It now has a two in front of it and is continuing to fall. Since Labor has come to government, real wages have been growing again. Living standards are rising again. It is this Labor government that has recorded the lowest average unemployment rate of any government in 50 years, having overseen the creation of more than one million jobs since coming to office. Try as they might, there is no amount of Liberal mental gymnastics that can distract from these facts. That's the picture from the national level, and it's a positive one. It's one giving Australians a platform for prosperity, despite global uncertainty.

But what I'm really passionate about is what has been delivered for households. On the ground in my community, across places like Elizabeth, Salisbury and Gawler, Labor has delivered an average tax cut of $1,217 to every single taxpayer in my community, with 91 per cent of those taxpayers getting a bigger one than what the Liberals had promised. Labor has delivered over half a million free enrolments into TAFE; that's half a million people, who can be disadvantaged or vulnerable, being uplifted. Labor has delivered policy to make child care cheaper—like the three-day guarantee, to help Aussie families get in front of their costs. Labor has delivered a freeze on medicine costs for pensioners and concession holders and has tripled the bulk-billing incentive so that taking care of yourself stays affordable. Labor has delivered policy to make it easier to buy or rent a house. Labor delivered significant changes to the cost of higher education to make it more affordable.

There is so much more I can say, but I will end on this. Everything I have mentioned, the Liberals have opposed at every chance they have been given. And, if given the chance, they will take it away.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has concluded.