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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

In particular, I rise to take note of the answer to the first question. The issue of cost of living, we know, is the single biggest issue that Australians are facing right now. Anyone who is spending any time in the community engaging with people knows that people are hurting significantly. We know that rises in interest rates have been decided on by the Reserve Bank. Twelve times since this government has been elected, the Reserve Bank have had to make the decision to require Australian households to do the heavy lifting in the economy to reduce inflation, because this government is not doing its job of leading and directing the programs and processes to ensure that we've got reduced pressure on inflation, and it's leaving it up to households.

We know that households across Australia are having a very difficult time making ends meet. Mortgages have gone up. If you're on a $750,000 mortgage, which in some states seems to be about the average—it's higher than what it would be in my home state of Western Australia, where it's about $500,000—your mortgage repayments have gone up $24,000 since interest rates started to rise. Where do you find that sort of money if you're on an average salary? It's phenomenal.

The problem that we have is that this government is not doing anything to address it. In fact, not only do they have no plan to address the cost of living, but the plans that they have put in place are actually adding fuel to inflation. The government come in here and say that they are doing things to address this, and they rattle off their programs, like the energy support and cheaper child care.

I just want to address one thing here while we're talking about cheaper child care. I'll just draw your attention, Mr Deputy President, to Senator Wong, who, in answers to questions today, actually misled the Senate when she said that the coalition did not support cheaper child care. I refer you back to the record. We supported the cheaper childcare bill in this place. We supported that legislation. We were critical of the fact that all that would happen was that the increase in subsidies would be swallowed up by an increase in charges by service providers, and, lo and behold, that is exactly what has happened. If you ask a family, 'Are you paying more today for child care than what you were paying before?' the answer, of course, is yes.

Senator Wong is not the only one. Senator Chisholm in estimates said the same thing—that the coalition didn't support the cheaper childcare plan. That is misleading. I know Senator Wong is here right now; I would encourage her to go and check what she said on Hansard today and come back in here and explain to the Senate whether or not she has misled the Senate, because I believe that she has. I don't make these sorts of accusations lightly. That's the truth, as far as I understand it. I remember because I ran the inquiry for the coalition into the cheaper childcare bill, and we supported it. You can check the report that the opposition provided in support of that bill. We were critical of it, as I've pointed out, absolutely.

It's just like the other measures. They said that electricity prices were going to be cheaper for Australians. They said it over 90 times throughout the election campaign. They said that they were going to be $275 cheaper, yet we know that the cost of electricity has gone up anywhere from 15 to 20 per cent for some people. So you can't say that your measures are actually helping to reduce cost-of-living pressures when, in fact, the cost of living is still going up. I mean, it's just evident. Anyone that is paying their bills, booking a flight, paying their mortgage, paying for their electricity or going and doing their grocery shopping can see that we are paying more. And, sadly, this government is asleep at the wheel, the Treasurer is at sea when it comes to managing the economy, and Australians are hurting because of it.