Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the millions of Australians who have been hit with yet another interest rate rise today—No. 12 since Labor was elected. If you have a $750,000 mortgage, you're now paying an extra $24,000 per year, and the Reserve Bank has warned of even more rises to come.

Australia today has higher inflation than nearly every major advanced economy in the world, and there's no light at the end of this dark tunnel because Labor has no plan to fight inflation and rising interest rates. The fact is that Labor's rubbish short-term vote-buying, Labor's record immigration and Labor's suicidal rush to net zero are directly responsible for this inflation and the pain it's causing the Australian people. Labor has increased government spending by almost $200 billion. About $20 billion of this was cost-of-living relief that has pretty much already been overtaken by inflation. It included some of the biggest rises in pensions and unemployment benefits we have ever seen. Billions more have gone to child care, Medicare, rent assistance and an increased single parenting payment.

Australians struggling with the cost of living would, understandably, accept these handouts, with Labor banking their votes for the next election. It is vote-buying, plain and simple. It's also robbing Peter to pay Paul. This short-term relief will mean greater pain in the long term. That $200 billion of additional spending has to come from somewhere; spending has to be cut in other areas, or taxes have to go up—or the money must be borrowed. Labor loves to borrow: our gross federal debt is approaching a trillion dollars. It just goes up, and up and up while Labor and the coalition refuse to do the hard work to pay down the debt. Soon we'll be paying more than $32 billion a year in interest on this debt. That's $32 billion that won't be put towards a single road, school or hospital. It will just go to creditors, like central banks. Ultimately, every Australian for generations will pay for it with higher taxes.

We already have the new productivity commissioner and the International Monetary Fund calling for an increase in the GST, which will make virtually all goods and services in Australia cost more—effectively by another five per cent or more. And that's on top of rising inflation. I don't know the economists who are advising the Prime Minister, but, as I said in my maiden speech in the other place, all those years ago, I wouldn't even let one of them handle my grocery shopping! Other economists are warning increasingly of the growing danger posed by Labor's record immigration. It is driving more inflation, suppressing wage growth and, of course, making our housing and rental crisis much worse than they should be or need be. We don't have enough homes for the people who are already here, and Labor plans to bring another 1.5 million people here in the next two to three years. This is making rentals unaffordable, even for people on comfortable incomes, and the latest interest-rate rise will drive them up further.

Finally, Labor—with the Greens tail wagging the government dog—is rushing ahead with unrealistic renewables targets and emissions reductions. This is the art of chasing the votes of more impressionable and younger Australians who have been indoctrinated into the climate change cult, believing that the planet is doomed unless Australia reduces its one per cent share of global emissions. Both parties of government do this; they sacrifice much-needed long-term reform for short-term political gain. They're basically incapable of thinking and planning beyond the next election. It is unsustainable and it can't go on. But it will go on as long as Australians keep on voting for these clowns, based on handouts and transitory issues that, ultimately, do not contribute to building a prosperous nation and a strong economy.

Your Prime Minister is certainly aware of this, but I tell you that he doesn't care. That's evidenced by the way he has run this country since his election. When his time in the job is over he will get a golden parachute and a staffed office for life. But that's okay—Australians, you will keep struggling.