Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We spend a lot of time in this chamber debating serious subjects, but sometimes there's the opportunity for a game, if you will. Earlier in May of this year, the Prime Minister made a comment, 'Labor has real lasting plans for …' Let's play a game. Let's see how this pans out with three options. Let's see if these fit in? Would you finish that sentence with: (1), higher energy costs, (2), a divisive constitutional change, or (3), higher interest rates? If you answered (1), (2) or (3), you'd be entirely wrong. The answer to that question in finishing that sentence is the Prime Minister actually said, somewhat incredibly, was 'cheaper mortgages'.

On 2 May, the Prime Minister said, 'Labor is real lasting plans for cheaper mortgages in this country.' They're real words and hard to believe. They're particularly hard to believe in circumstances where, since May of this year, we've have seen a 400 basis point increase on interest rates, which equates in real dollar terms to, as Senator Canavan pointed out earlier on, $15,000 extra in annual mortgage repayments for your average mortgage holder in this country. It seems hard to believe anyone could possibly construct that sentence in those circumstances.

The question is: why have we seen 11 interest rate rises since the 2022 federal election, since the Australian Labor Party took government in this country? Why are we here? The one major reason we're here is of course the word inflation, which we don't seem to hear a lot from the other side of the chamber anymore, but that's the reality. What we do hear consistently from the other side of the chamber though is how they're here to fight for the worker, the little guy. And what's the thing that's hurting the average Australian, the little guy, the worker, so much at the moment? Inflation, mortgage increases, cost-of-living increases. They are the things that they are really interested in. They're not interested in a constitutional change and a Voice to Parliament; they are interested in why it is that there is less money to go around and less opportunity to put food on the table.

Let's have a look at those who have been particularly hardest hit by this. First home buyers moving from fixed interest rates—if it is not happening at the moment, it is going to happen soon—are the people who are particularly being belted at the moment. They are the hidden victims of a financial shock and it is hitting them in increased numbers. Thousands upon thousands of first home buyers are now seeing their interest rate payments triple as they revert to variable rates because of successive interest rate rises. We know that those opposite love to try and distract with smoke and mirrors like the Voice or whatever the issue of the day may be, but this is the stuff that is really biting out there in our communities.

One part of the inflationary puzzle has been the increase in power prices across the country. Just today, I was reading the ever-reliable, ever-interesting and ever-accurate Adelaide Advertiser newspaper, which is a favourite of mine, for its interesting stories about real estate agents, who the best hairdresser is, where you get the finest stock agent and whether a footballer is selling their home. It has lots of great stuff in there. Occasionally, they nail one, though. How about this one today: 'SA small businesses pay more for power than the rest of Australia'? What is the common factor in South Australia for South Australian businesses to be paying more for power than anywhere else in the country? We've had more Labor government. So we now have two Labor governments—one at a state level and one at the federal level.