Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Senator McAllister, I'm not quite sure what I was saying there. I was just throwing a bit of colour into the MPI this afternoon, a bit of alliteration and metaphor. I know you guys like to keep it all drib and drab, but we'll push back on the fact—

A government senator interjecting—

I know you don't like it, but the fact of the matter is Australians are doing it tough. They're doing it tough because the Albanese government have no idea of what they are doing. They are running a high immigration rate when we have got a rental crisis. At the same time, they're cutting back on infrastructure. Why would you cut back on infrastructure spending if you're having more people coming into the country? You would think you would need more dams. You would think you would need more reliable baseload energy.

A government senator interjecting—

No, no, no. What the Albanese government is doing is it's wasting money on renewable projects. It's wasting money on the Voice that is a complete and utter distraction from the real issues in this country, which is cost of living.

We've had a Prime Minister that has been out of the country probably more than any other Prime Minister in history. He's been running around, gallivanting around the world big-noting himself with the globalists instead of dealing with the hardship here. Hardship brought about by a government that is effectively, through high immigration, high interest rates—they haven't actually expanded the volume of money in the system, which is what the 1937 banking royal commission said that we should do to control supply. No, no, no. They're not dealing with any supply-side issues whatsoever. All they are doing—actually, I'll take that back. They are. They're restricting supply by cutting back on infrastructure.

I know that those on the other side mightn't like to hear that, but the fact of the matter is they don't have any answers. What they want to do, rather than deal with and provide solutions to the problems that they've created, is to distract us with things like the Voice, which is going to be a complete and utter waste of time. We don't even know what the date of the Voice is. I wish you guys would get on with it, because the sooner we can get rid of the Voice and get that over and done with, the sooner we can move on to the real issue, which is the cost of living.

Prime Minister Albanese still hasn't been able to explain to the Australian people why before the election he said he would cut energy prices by $275. Has he done that? No, he has not done that. Energy prices went up by $700 by June 30 this year, and then the energy companies have come out and said they're going to increase power prices by another 30 per cent. Why is that? I'll tell you why that is. That is because of the obsession of the Labor Party and their friends in the Greens with unreliable and unrecyclable energy—otherwise known as renewables, but that's actually a misnomer. As we've seen recently, we've got these wind turbines stuck in the forests of North Queensland. They want to build more of these wind turbines. They're going to destroy our environment. They're going to destroy people's disposable income.

Then we've got this whole issue where we can't get people into houses. We cannot build enough houses in this country. And what's Labor's solution to this? They are going to continue to increase superannuation—to lift that superannuation levy to 12 per cent by 2025. I'm calling on the Labor Party to actually cut superannuation. Cut it back to six per cent, or, if you like, you can split it in half now: five per cent optional, five per cent compulsory. Will you do that? That will let people keep a little bit more of their hard-earned wages. We know Labor loves to steal wages. Superannuation is wage theft: it takes money from the battlers and gives it to the elites in their ivory towers in Sydney and Melbourne, and that's not on. So, Senator McAllister, if you want to get all picky and choosy about my reflections, I suggest you forget that. It's merely a deflection. You need to get on and focus on the cost of living. (Time expired)