Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answers to questions asked by the coalition today, specifically on the cost of living and the Voice. It was interesting to hear the previous speaker using the word 'hypocrisy'. We shouldn't use words we don't know the meaning of, but I'm sure the other side knows the meaning of that word only too well. I'm going to use a word they may not know the meaning of: trust. Let's talk about the lead-up to the last election and the promises that were made, including the promise that you could trust this government, now elected, to bring down your power prices and trust it to bring down the cost of living and make your life easier. Everything was going to be great. All I know is, if you look at the scoreboard, it's like everything has gone up. Everyone knows mortgages have gone up; they know energy prices have gone up; they know grocery prices have gone up. If you look at the scoreboard, the people at home know what's happened. It's like in round 18 this year in the NRL, when the Wests Tigers came off the field losing 74-0 to the Cowboys, a horrible result. Imagine if the coach of the West Tigers got up and said: 'It's the other side. They didn't pass us the ball. They didn't kick us the ball. They didn't give us a ball.' You're in charge of your own destiny when you get here. You got into government to run your own game. If the people trusted to you make their lives better, the scoreboard says you are failing.

The previous senator mentioned that child care might have gone up by 49 per cent under the previous government. I'm not going to dispute that; it may have. It was nine years. If the government's first year is anything to go by—and assuming it's in office for nine years—child care will go up 200 per cent over the same period. This is the hypocrisy we're talking about here. They talk about a bill to solve the energy crisis that wasn't voted for by the coalition. It got through. If energy prices have not gone down, it's because that policy has failed. The vote of this side had nothing to do with how that policy is going out there in the world. That's where we're at. We're here in this place talking about trust—the trust that the people of Australia misplaced in the government with their vote, and the trust that the cost of living would come down and people's lives would be better. They are not.

Now we go to the other part of the question and the trust the government are asking Australians to put in them on the Voice. They don't trust the people of Australia enough to give them the details; they don't trust the people of Australia enough to give them the answers, and we heard that here today. The 26 pages of the Uluru Statement from the Heart raise some specific questions that this government endorses in full and wants to deliver in full. Where is the trust in telling Australians how it will work, who will vote for Voice members, how they will be housed and these sorts of things? If this government won't trust you with the information, why should you trust them with your vote? That's what this comes down to in this chamber. We're here to do a job. We're here to make people's lives better. It's a job of government to get their legislation through—make it better, negotiate, talk to people. If the Housing Australia Fund doesn't come through, it's not the fault of those over here or those at the end of the chamber; it's the fault of the government for not putting forward a bill that is supported by enough people because it is good enough.

People in regional Australia don't want to put their money on a roulette wheel to see if they get a housing allocation for key workers. They want certainty. The people in Mudgee spent six months trying to attract an IT worker for their school. After three months of living there, they couldn't find permanent accommodation, so they moved back to a city. They can't take a risk on that. They don't want to bet that the future fund does well. They don't want to bet that the stock market goes up. They don't want to bet on red when black comes up. They want certainty, and that's why that bill is no good.

After just 12 months of this government, we have all these costs going up. We have a focus on a piece of legislation that is dividing Australia, and it was determined to do that. A legislated voice and a vote at referendum for recognition could have brought Australia together. It was chosen; it wasn't an accident. It had to be chosen to be rolled into one. By design, Australia is being divided when what this government wants could have been delivered quite easily and in a better manner.

To those at home deciding what bill not to pay, deciding what money to hide, deciding what their kids go without, put it down to this: trust yourselves to do the right thing because you can't trust government. Ask the questions. And be strong.

Question agreed to.