Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It seems extraordinary to me, with the pain that families are experiencing at the moment, that members of the government, those opposite, are continuing to get up and tell us how great everything's going. Nothing's their fault, obviously! We know they have absolutely no sense of propriety or honesty when it comes to looking in the mirror, but, according to them, everything's going great—it's all going great guns. Their economic plan's fantastic. Everything's working well. Everyone's cheering them on. Why don't you just tell Australians that they just should shut up and stop whinging because they've got it so great under the Albanese government? It is just extraordinary that this government is continuing to cause so much pain through its ideologically driven agenda. It spends taxpayers' money like it is going out of fashion, with no transparency and no detail.

We heard Senator Farrell today say that they're going to be in government for a really, really long time. And I can tell you that that sent a shiver up the spine of millions of Australians, because I think the 32 per cent of Australians who voted to put this government in may be starting to get a little bit of buyer's remorse. It is just unbelievable to come in here and consistently say, 'We're doing fantastic job tackling inflation. We're doing a fantastic job,' and say, on childcare fees, 'They're saving so much money.' But you obviously don't read any papers or go and talk to anyone, because you'll hear from those that utilise child care—and that's not every Australian—that what your rebate increase did was actually push fees up. The centres pocket the rebate, and families are paying either the same or more. This has not really delivered very much for many families at all.

We just heard from Senator Walsh about the energy prices and that the energy prices could have been up 14 per cent higher—not just the fact that they already are up by at least 13 per cent, if not more when you come to gas. The fact is that their argument is, 'We know it's up, but it could have been up by more.' This energy relief that they say was such a great boon for households didn't go to all households. It went to a very small group of households. And it was only a one-off payment. It's actually no solution to the rising power prices. We know that's being partly driven by this race to renewables and that they are going with taxes rather than technology as they race towards an ideological zealotry within the renewable sector, absolutely putting the pain onto Australian families.

This is like a fairy floss party that we're seeing in government at the moment. Everything is a bit of a sugar hit and no substance at all.

The Prime Minister, when he is in the country, has nothing to say about the economy. He is consistently running an ideological agenda with his activist mates and corporate associates. He spent $450 million of Australian taxpayer money on a referendum that the Australian people absolutely said no to. It was clear they would say no but he pushed ahead spending that money on an ideological crusade, instead of doing any work to rein in spending.

Yesterday saw the 12th rate rise since this Labor government came to power. These are the highest rates since 2011, back when they were in power last time. It is funny how that pattern seems to continue. A family with an average mortgage of 750,000 now needs to find an extra $24,000 a year—$24,000 a year! The average monthly mortgage repayment when the coalition left office was $2,670. It is now $3,994. That is an increase of 50 per cent. That is how much Australians are hurting. We know when mortgage holders are hurting, rents go up. The median rent for a three-bedroom house nationally was $340 a week; it is now $665. We know that on the East Coast it is a lot higher than that. One hundred and fifty dollars used to get you quite a few bags of groceries. You'll be lucky to get two now. Families have to make choices, not about whether or not they go on an overseas holiday; they are now having to decide if their kids can continue to do sport. But don't worry, you guys are telling us you are doing everything you can and, apparently, it is all tickety boo in Labor land.