Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take up the challenge from those opposite and I will talk about the budget, and I will pick up where my colleague just left off. Despite all of the rhetoric that you hear from Labor about the coalition's time in government, if the economy was so bad then there's no way the figures that we're seeing now would be occurring. The reality is that after the pandemic, through the investments made to support the Australian economy but particularly, as has been indicated earlier, the Australian people, the economy was in a very strong position, and fortunately it has continued to be in a strong position.

But contrary to what the Labor Party are saying now and how Mr Albanese promised at the election, 'Life will be cheaper under me'—it's not. They talk about wages increasing at a higher rate. That's true, but they're not increasing in real terms. They're going backwards. And that's what the Australian people thought they were going to get, higher wages, when the now government was in opposition, seeking election.

Australians were promised higher real wages. That is what they were promised but they've got lower real wages. They were promised a lower cost of living; they've got a higher cost of living. They were promised lower interest rates; they've got higher interest rates. They were promised lower power prices; they've got higher power prices. And they're very quickly coming to the realisation that they cannot believe what this government is saying to them. The government can't keep its promises—it hasn't kept its promises—and that is very apparent after just one year of this government.

None of the things the government promised Australians have come to pass. And despite their rhetoric about the coalition's time in government, the strength of the economy and the strength of the post-COVID recovery is a direct result of the support that the coalition provided to Australian businesses and to Australian workers through the pandemic so that they could stay attached to their job, they could keep their job, and that the businesses would survive. I don't know how many businesses I've been into where the proprietor has said to me, 'Our business would not have survived if it hadn't been for the support that your government gave to us through the pandemic.' I'm very proud of our record. I'm proud of the work we did to support the Australian people and the Australian economy through the pandemic. It was bloody hard work, but it has paid off. And you're seeing it in the strength of the economic indicators now.

But what this government isn't doing through its budget is helping by reducing inflation. I was there two weeks ago when the Reserve Bank governor appeared before Senate estimates. He said quite clearly: 'This budget doesn't shift the dial. It doesn't make any difference, in the context of our terms, with what we're doing with interest rates.' If you're not helping, you're hindering.

There is one element of the Labor Party's budget which is assisting with the inflation rate, and that's the support that is going into energy costs. I'm happy to put that on the record. The Labor Party often quote that. I suppose that's fair enough. What they don't quote is the next sentence that the Reserve Bank governor put on the record, which is, 'When those supports end, they're inflationary.' So in 12 months time, the removal of supports for energy costs will become inflationary at the time we'll be looking to see reductions in interest rates through the other efforts of the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank is being left to do all the heavy lifting because the government is doing none in its budget. The Reserve Bank is being left to do all the heavy lifting. At the same time the government has the unions out there beating up on the Reserve Bank governor, because it isn't prepared to do the work it should be doing in helping to reduce inflation. It's not just one person's job. It's not just the Reserve Bank governor's job to work on reducing inflation. The government needs to be playing its role too. The Reserve Bank governor said that the government's budget is not shifting the dial—it's not helping; it's hindering—because they're not doing their own job.

Question agreed to.