Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The matter of public importance that I've proposed here today is for the Senate to take a look and recognise the fact that Prime Minister Albanese needs to prioritise helping Australian households and small businesses deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Anyone that's spending any time in the community speaking to any Australian recognises that this is the single biggest issue that Australians are facing right now. It's not just those that are on low incomes; it's affecting people right through to the upper bands of the middle incomes and even some on higher incomes. It's a cost-of-living crisis that is impacting upon every Australian, yet this Prime Minister has proven that he is distracted and that he is not capable of dealing with multiple things at once, like a Prime Minister should be able to do. A government should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, but this government is proving that it is not even capable of doing that. They've just held this referendum, and a resounding decision was made. A resounding position was given by the Australian people to this government to get back to focusing on the things that are really going to impact on their lives. But it's worse than the fact that the government can't do multiple things at once. The issue is they don't have a reasonable, sensible, workable plan to address this cost-of-living crisis. It's not just that they're not capable of doing a few things at once; they don't even have a plan that's reasonable, that's sensible, that's workable and that's going to deliver on addressing this rampant inflation that we've got.

Australians know that petrol prices are going up and rental prices are going up. Their mortgages have gone up. Australians are being forced to spend significantly more for the critical items that they need, like their groceries. I mentioned fuel—insurance has gone through the roof. Energy and housing prices have gone through the roof. Australians are spending on these things rather than the things that they really want.

I want to read a statement from the RBA on its decision to keep October interest rates unchanged at 4.1 per cent. They said:

… the economy is still experiencing a period of below-trend growth and this is expected to continue for a while. High inflation is weighing on people's real incomes and household consumption growth is weak, as is dwelling investment … High inflation makes life difficult for everyone and damages the functioning of the economy.

That's what they said. Now listen to this. They said:

It erodes the value of savings, hurts household budgets, makes it harder for businesses to plan and invest, and worsens income inequality.

This is why inflation should have been and needs to be the absolute No. 1 priority of the government, but they're lost at sea, and it is impacting Australians.

Australians are hurting right now, but this government is distracted by all sorts of other things, like, for example, industrial relations reform that is really just aimed at increasing the union grip on and control over the workplaces of Australia. That's what this government has planned for the industrial relations system, because it's not truly addressing the issues. They could be quite precisely dealing with some of the matters that relate to the industrial relations system, but instead they've got this broad-brush response that is going to cruel business. It will drive down employment in this country. If you're a casual, forget about it under this government. If you want flexibility in the workplace, forget about it under this government. If you have to work a second job to make ends meet, forget about it under this government. They're completely lost at sea. They've been distracted, but their plans are not actually addressing the issues.

We've seen productivity growth at a seven-year low, and there's nothing that this government is doing to address productivity. Real wages are going backwards, because all wages are doing is chasing the high inflation that the government is creating by its economic measures, which are not actually helping people to address their cost of living. This government is lost at sea, it's distracted and it needs to get focused, because it's hurting people.