Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

This year will be tough for many, many Australian households. Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the ninth consecutive month, taking interest rates to their highest level since September 2012. The RBA has signalled that there's still more to come:

The board expects that further increases in interest rates will be needed over the months ahead to ensure that inflation returns to target …

Why does the RBA hold these expectations? That's because there is no economic plan in sight from the Albanese government to get inflation under control.

Just yesterday morning, the Treasurer said that it was the job of the RBA to get on top of this inflation challenge and that it was his job to do what he could to take some of the pressure off around the country for people who are doing it tough. That must have been news to the Minister for Finance, who said on Tuesday that dealing with inflation was in fact 'the defining economic challenge facing the country'. 'We have been very clear about that,' she said. It's alarming that no-one has told the Treasurer that his job is actually to do both. He needs to deliver an economic plan to deal with inflation and address the cost-of-living crisis. He's in government; he needs to act like it. The Treasurer is responsible for fiscal policy, and the RBA is responsible for monetary policy, but both are needed to ensure that we tackle inflation and keep the impact to a minimum. Right now, only the RBA is using its levers. Treasurer Chalmers thinks that it's alright to leave the RBA to do all of that heavy lifting, leaving Australian mortgage holders to bear the brunt of this Labor government's inaction on inflation.

At the Select Committee on Cost of Living last week, we heard that 800,000 mortgages will come off fixed rates in 2023. That's up to 800,000 households who will be feeling even more pressure on their budgets at the same time as they're dealing with higher grocery prices and higher energy prices. The main takeaway from those hearings was that higher prices and higher mortgages are leaving Australian families struggling to put food on the table.

Minister Tony Burke said on 15 June last year that people will see in their bank accounts what the change of government means. Well, he certainly was right, because Labor's cost-of-living crisis is very real. The Salvation Army said that one-third of people walking through their doors name the cost of living as why they need help. As a result of the increased demand from charities, Woolworths have increased their food donations by 20 per cent.

The Australian Energy Regulator revealed that there has been a 12 per cent increase in people struggling to pay their power bills. Australians are crying out for their government to help them with the impact of inflation, with rising interest rates and with rising energy prices. This is a government that was elected on the basis of promises around the cost of living for Australians, and on 97 occasions it promised a $275 reduction in electricity bills. Now no-one from Labor will even say the words 'two hundred and seventy-five dollars'. Last week the cost-of-living committee heard that it would be impossible for Labor to deliver on its $275 promise—not only that but that Australians will be paying higher electricity prices this year. On top of that, the Energy Regulator confirmed that prices would not just increase throughout this year, despite Labor's proposed response—their ham-fisted market intervention—but also discourage long-term investment, meaning less supply and even higher prices in the long term.

We need to have a government that's focused on managing fiscal policy so the Reserve Bank doesn't have to do all that heavy lifting. In January, the Prime Minister said, 'My new year's resolution is to continue to deal with cost-of-living pressures.' Well, Prime Minister, it's February, and you've failed. Nothing has been done. You haven't got an economic plan for the 800,000 households who will see higher mortgages. You haven't got an economic plan for the millions of families who will pay more to keep the lights on. You haven't got an economic plan for the Australians who are struggling to put food on the table tonight, because they can't afford it. But, worst of all, you've failed because you and your Treasurer are not doing your jobs. You're not doing your jobs to tackle inflation. You're not doing your jobs to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. You're leaving it to the RBA to do all the heavy lifting, to raise interest rates, and you are doing nothing about it. This is a blight on your government, and it's time to step up and do the right thing with fiscal policy, not just leave it to the RBA.