Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I rise to speak about reducing the cost of living for Aussie families and battlers because it's the core of One Nation policies. Most everything we do we hold against this measure: how will this reduce the cost of living for families and battlers? That's our measure.

We turn now to today's MPI, which at its heart talks about cost of living issues. Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten made a speech recently in which he claimed to the ALP faithful that inequality was, 'the biggest threat to our health as an economy and our cohesion as a society'. Inequality of wealth is certainly an economic phenomenon that must be considered by policymakers. The left, however, often revert to a view—usually to win an election—that wealth creation is unjust and inequitable. The opposite is the truth. Wealth creation and having sufficient and growing wealth is the sign of a healthy economy, not whether someone else has even more sufficient and growing wealth. Everyone deserves a fair go to make the most of life.

To put it another way, wealth creation in free markets is inherently win-win, not zero sum. Inequality only makes economic sense as one possible indicator that something may be askew with real net wealth, be it the levels, trend, distribution and, especially, sources of wealth. Real net wealth is not driven by inequality, but by factors such as real income and wages versus the real cost of living. The latter is partially and imperfectly measured by the consumer price index, which nevertheless clearly shows why poor and middle-class Aussies continue to struggle. Price inflation, as measured by the CPI, has been largely and shockingly accumulating like compound interest since the early 1970s.

Those on the right side of politics—the freedom side of politics—will, or at least should, be aware of the primary role that too many government interventions have in reducing real net wealth and the distribution of wealth. I will say that again: government interventions reduce real net wealth and the distribution of that wealth. Poor government intervention in markets is driving up prices across the economy and putting pressure on the cost of living of those that can least afford it. Key amongst these interventions are regulation, taxation and inflation of the money supply. Such interventions not only always reduce real wealth but always have distribution consequences and inefficiencies as well, whether intended or unintended. Let us remember the famous saying, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' Regardless of intentions, most, if not all, government interventions eventually hurt the many to the benefit of the few. The many are the grassroots businesses, consumers, taxpayers and families of this country. The few are the elite lobbyists, activists, bureaucrats and politicians. The poster boy—or is it politically correct nowadays to instead say 'poster gender-fluid entity'?—for such interventions is the plethora of climate-related ones since 2007 and the all-too predictable impacts on electricity prices since then. The electricity CPI clearly shows what the story has been in the past decade. The small dip from 2013 to 2015 is the removal of the Gillard Labor-Greens carbon tax. The shocking rise in electricity CPI overall since 2008 has almost exclusively been driven by government regulations and taxpayer subsidies in solar and wind. The energy market, thanks to government regulations, is not an energy market; it's an energy racket. The problem of CPI is caused by regulation. The solution is not more regulation.

In conclusion, free-market wealth and thus any inequality are not at the expense of others. Government-facilitated wealth is, has been and always will be at the cost of others. This is where significant and sustainable inequality almost always comes from: fake or crony capitalism, not real free-market capitalism. We at Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party are the party of cheaper electricity. We at One Nation are the party of a lower cost of living. We need to celebrate human progress, human creativity and that most awesome resource of all, the free human spirit.