Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday, in question time, I asked Minister Farrell if the Labor government would deliver the $275 power bill reduction they promised the Australian people no fewer than 97 times before the election. He didn't answer. I then asked if he would admit that the Labor government broke their election promise to make no changes to superannuation. We now know that one in 10 Australians will be impacted by their superannuation changes, far from the modest broken promise that Minister Gallagher keeps talking about. But again, of course, he had no answer. I then asked if the minister would admit that his government broke yet another election promise to lower the cost of PBS medicines after they removed a life-changing diabetes drug from the PBS. That is a fact. Of course, he had no answer for that either.

It is very clear that with this Labor government, as with every other Labor government, you should never ever listen to what they say before the election and to the promises they make on what they will do and what they won't do. There is nothing more certain—and this government has asserted that truism—than that they will say one thing before the election and do another thing afterwards. In fact, the very same Minister Farrell in estimates in response to questions about the NDIS admitted, on behalf of Minister Shorten, that they said one thing before the election and, suddenly, new facts were revealed that made them change their position and break promises—in this case, that there would be no cuts to the NDIS. So they say one thing and do another thing.

Let's have a look at the facts and how they say one thing and do another. They break promises without shame. The promise to lower electricity prices has been broken. The promise of cheaper mortgages has been broken. The promise of no changes to super has been broken. The promise to lower inflation has been broken. The promise that they were not touching franking credits—guess what?—has been broken. They promised that industry-wide bargaining was not part of their policy. We know that that was broken, too. The list goes on and on. The promise that they would be doing their bit to assist real wage increases was broken. The promise not to raise taxes was broken. The promise to cut the cost of consultants and contractors was broken.

Western Australians, who I represent in this place, are seriously struggling already in less than a year under the Labor Party and this Labor government. Everything is going up except their wages. There is no relief in sight. Listening to those opposite in this chamber again this week, they have been blaming everybody else, saying, 'We didn't know the state of the economy.' Let me tell you that the fact is that we left the Labor government, if not the best, one of the best and strongest post-COVID economies in the OECD and, in fact, in the world. That is a fact. Now a procession of Labor Party members, senators and ministers are saying: 'We didn't realise that we'd actually have to govern, that we'd actually have to make decisions to deliver the promises that we made Australians. It's somebody else's fault. We didn't actually read the budget papers for the last year or the year before or the year before that. We didn't actually read any of the documents to understand the state of the economy.' They supported at the time the decisions we made to save Australians' health and the economy during COVID. You supported all those at the time and now you are saying, 'Oh—