Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to bring a human context to this debate. I note that we have four Queensland senators in the chamber at the moment—Senator Roberts, Senator Chisholm, Senator McDonald and me—and each and every one of us would care about the people of Ipswich. My office is located in Springfield, which is within the Ipswich City Council area.

There is a wonderful organisation there called Ipswich Assist, and they've been operating a food bank for quite some time. Recently they had a freezer break down, which was a desperate issue for them because they get 100 kilograms of meat donated from JBS meatworks in the area and they need that freezer to provide for the people in the community who rely on them. The community rallied, and enough funds were actually raised for two freezers. I give my deep compliments to Jason Budden and his team at Ipswich Assist and also congratulate JBS for making that contribution.

When I visited recently, Jason and his team told me that there is an ever-increasing demand for the relief that they provide. They assist over 600 people a week in relation to cost-of-living pressures, and the feedback from Jason and his team is that they're starting to see people who they've never seen before. They are seeing families where there is someone with employment, but, with the impact of interest rates, inflation, grocery prices, electricity prices and rent increases, there is a cost-of-living crisis, and Ipswich Assist are at the coalface of dealing with that crisis.

So there is a profound human dimension to this. People are struggling across this country. At the time when the last budget was brought down, those on this side of the chamber raised questions and concerns about whether or not that budget was fit for purpose for this point in time. I made a contribution in this place and spoke about how it was a big-taxing, big-spending and expansionary budget which, in my view, would contribute to inflation and which heightens the risk of a further interest rate rise. We saw that interest rate rise, and that hits every family's bottom line.

I commend to everyone an article that was in the West Australian recently, written by my good friend Senator Dean Smith, in relation to the scourge of inflation and the need for leadership at the highest levels in this country to be focused on defeating inflation. I would recommend that everyone read that article. It was a very thoughtful article and an excellent contribution to the debate, because inflation is the great hidden tax. It impacts every single person in this country. It's a regressive hidden tax in the sense that it hurts those at the lower income end of the spectrum more than it hurts those at the upper end, because those at the lower end of the income spectrum have less discretion around their spending because they're struggling to meet the necessities of life. I think Senator Smith encapsulated those thoughts very well in terms of his arguments.

I did want to go to some detail with respect to the last inflation increase and how this translated into actual figures impacting all Australians. When this was released, there was a statement made by Mr Marcel Thieliant, Senior Economist at Capital Economics. He said, 'It now looks more likely than not that Q2 inflation will overshoot the RBA's forecast of 6.3 per cent.' (Time expired)

Debate interrupted.