Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The hypocrisy that we have heard through question time is quite unbelievable. We have been listening to it over and over again since suddenly, somewhere in the middle of 2022, those opposite realised that the decisions made in this place impact the people who live in this country, who vote for this parliament and who rely upon us and upon the policies of this country. Guess what? A cost-of-living crisis didn't miraculously occur in May 2022. It really didn't. There have been ridiculous claims from people across the chamber here who I know are actually educated and intelligent. But you wouldn't think so to listen to some of the absolute nonsense that is being touted, not just in this chamber but across the country, from those opposite, who are just trying to make some stuff up to get a media hit, rather than having any care or consideration about the people of this country and the plight that they are in given the cost-of-living challenges that we are facing.

After nine long years with no regard for people's challenges, for people's issues with the cost of living, with no sense of planning for the future, with no preparation to make sure that there are plans in place to protect the people in this country into the future—none—they have done some of the most ridiculous, incoherent things, if they actually had any care whatsoever. They've claimed themselves—and it's been argued in this chamber many times—that low wages were a deliberate design feature of their policy. They did it intentionally, knowingly. If that's your situation, then own it, admit it. Don't turn around when you are not in government anymore and go: 'No, it wasn't us. It's not our fault'. Own up. They opposed a $1 an hour increase to the minimum wage, for God's sake. They said no to Secure Jobs, Better Pay because they said it was going to result in higher wages. They said no to banning pay secrecy clauses and stood in the way of any changes to close the gender pay gap. They wanted to charge a $7 GP tax. They tried to increase the cost of medicines by $5, and they wanted to charge for emergency visits. To hear the rhetoric coming out of them now—the absolute hypocrisy being touted now—is unbelievable. Own up to what you've done over the last decade, own the policies that you put in place, own the legislation that you passed and own the things that you didn't pass. This whole hypocrisy that is being played out is offensive.

We know—the facts are there—that childcare costs rose by 49 per cent under the last coalition government. Yet they are making all sorts of accusations about the policies that the Labor government has put in place to reduce the cost of child care. Our policies do multiple things to support families and to support women to get back into the workplace. In nearly a decade, they never once increased any of the supports for paid parental leave. They said no to more social and affordable housing, including for women and children fleeing domestic violence. They said no to $30 million for veterans housing services. The kinds of issues that have been blocked by those opposite are embarrassing to this country. That's before we even get started on what's been done in the housing space, with the blocking of money to build new houses when, every single time they stand up over there in question time, they raise the issue of mortgages and rental prices. Surprise, surprise, people, increasing supply will help reduce the costs of housing. Stop pretending that you don't understand and stand up and own what you've done and own what you have blocked and what you have passed.