Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have to start with some myth busting again. Pretty much every time we talk about the cost of living in this place we have to start with some myth busting because those opposite can't help but roll out the mistruths that real wages grew under the last coalition government. It was a slow increase, I will knowledge, but a sustainable increase. Whereas, under this Labor government, they have plummeted in the face of high inflation. Real wages are declining, and every Australian who receives a pay packet knows it, because they know the cost of living is going up faster than their wages. They've seen their mortgage payments absolutely skyrocket in the last 12 months. They've seen the cost of their grocery bills absolutely skyrocket in the last 12 months. And, in this period of high inflation, yes, wages have gone up, but they haven't kept up with the cost of living. Real wages have gone backwards, and that's because we have a Labor government that doesn't have a clue about how to manage the economy.

When talking about cost-of-living pressures, they roll out a few things that they supposedly have done in this space. We hear about pharmaceuticals, yet the pharmacies out there are absolutely horrified by what this Labor government has done in the industry, and now we are seeing patient groups recognising the damage done by this Labor government in the pharmaceutical space, and they are coming out to oppose that policy as well. The Labor government trumpeted their childcare changes, yet most parents out there know that childcare costs and availability have gotten worse not better under this government. And they trumpeted what they've done in the energy space, whereas, in actual fact, all they have really done in the energy space is frighten away foreign investment, deter new energy suppliers coming into the market, particularly gas coming into the market. That will, over time, force up the cost of energy even more.

I ask you, if you're listening to this out there, to look at your energy bills over the past 14 months under this Labor government. They haven't come down, and you know they haven't come down. When the Labor Party stands up in this place and trumpets what it has supposedly done to bring down the pressure on energy prices, every Australian just has to look after their energy bill to know that that is a mistruth, and Australians will judge that harshly.