James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I spend my life travelling around Queensland as a proud LNP senator. Across these travels I speak to and listen to thousands of Queenslanders on the many issues that impact how they live their lives. Whether it be crime, the cost of living, housing, health, escalating insurance premiums or poor transport, Queenslanders are struggling under state Labor and federal Labor governments.

But one experience I had in Brisbane last week actually left me speechless. Peter Dutton and I were speaking to Dan Pappas, who is the owner of a well-known business called Fonzie Abbott, which sells coffee—an important service. In the last two years alone, Dan has faced a raft of challenges. He had to deal with the COVID-19 lockdowns and the fact that they shut down his business. He had to deal with the floods, when his building was waist deep in water. In both events, he pushed on. He kept his business running, he kept his staff employed and he kept up the supply of coffee to people in the Albion area of Brisbane—very, very important. But then Dan was hit with the current cost-of-living crisis, and Dan told Peter and me that, despite the government shutdowns and the floodwaters sweeping through his business, right now is, in fact, the hardest time his business has faced. Just imagine that: you're a small business owner and you were underwater 18 months ago. You've just emerged from COVID, but now is a harder time to run your business because you're dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. It's just insane!

But do Labor care? They don't. Dan explained that at the end of the day, after paying the rising prices for his produce, the higher wages for his staff to make sure they can live their lives—because he's a good boss—the higher insurance premiums and the higher rent, there really wasn't much left over. But Dan's struggle isn't unique. Sadly, across Australia families and small businesses are truly hurting. But the government, this Labor government, has no plan to deal with the cost-of-living crisis—no plan at all. This Labor government has been in power for 16 months and they've actually done absolutely nothing to reduce the cost-of-living pressures. And prices are only going up. But they strut around, saying that net inflation is going down. If you speak to anyone, whether in Fonzie Abbott or at the Sandy Creek pub down the road from me, they'll tell you that everything is going up and that there's a cost-of-living crisis.

If this Labor government spoke to my fellow Queenslanders, they would know that they're doing it really tough right now because they're paying higher rents, they have higher mortgage repayments, higher electricity bills, higher insurance premiums and higher grocery bills. We speak to people across Queensland, and I can promise this: life isn't getting easier, it's only getting harder. Queenslanders think that Queensland and Australia are heading in the wrong direction and that life will continue to get harder and harder while this Labor government harps on about the Voice and does not talk about or deal with the issues that actually impact Australian lives.

Our Deputy Prime Minister really enjoys his travel, doesn't he?