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

I'm just going to read out, for those who are listening at home, what this matter of public importance is about:

With the average family with a mortgage paying $1,500 a month more, paying 20 per cent more on energy bills, record high petrol prices and their real wages going backwards, Australians are facing a full-blown cost of living crisis and a litany of Albanese Labor Government broken promises.

Isn't this interesting? We've got a government who have been in power for almost 18 months, and they've just wasted $450 million on a failed referendum, and they haven't been talking about cost of living or any of the other issues that impact upon how Australians live their lives. That is a tragedy. You can think about what that money could have been spent on in terms of helping Australians alleviate the cost-of-living crisis. More importantly, it goes to the political priorities of this government. They wanted to bring forward a referendum that would divide this country rather than focus on cost of living. What is interesting is that, since the weekend, the Prime Minister has discovered three words, and they are 'cost of living'—