Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this matter of public importance. I thank Senator McGrath for raising it, mainly because we on this side of the chamber know that this cost-of-living crisis that we're now in is real. We know because we talk to people about it every single day of the year. The RBA recently confirmed something which those on this side of the chamber have known for a long period of time—that is, that, despite the attempts to distract, blame others and point the finger at international factors and concerns about what's causing this cost-of-living crisis, the cause of this crisis actually arises domestically. For too long we've heard this Labor government blame other people and other things for that which is of their own making—whether it's overseas wars, the cost of the international energy market, UFOs invading or some other factor.

If the Labor Party want to have a look at what's causing this, all they need to do tomorrow morning is go into their caucus room and look at each other and potentially even look at the Prime Minister, although there would be a very slim chance of finding him at the helm. Where is he today? Does anybody know? We'd have to check. It has been said before that the best way to get a message through to the Prime Minister is to simply find your way to Washington, get to the west wing and stick a post-it note on Joe Biden's door in order to get a message through: 'Next time you see our Prime Minister, Mr President, can you please pass on the message that Australians are suffering through a cost-of-living crisis.' They might do the same thing at 10 Downing Street.

But the way through this, of course, is to accept that the local and domestic policies of this government are what are driving this crisis. Australians know it. Increasingly, they are seeing it, because there's no way around it. This is not a problem which has come about in the last 10 minutes, either. This is a problem which has effectively been driven by policymaking matters, like the extraordinary explosion in red tape in this country. We know this, and the people who know this best are our farmers. I've heard complaints on my travels over and over again about the difficulties that are now had. We heard it at the state level in Western Australia, with the heritage laws that were put in being emblematic of the problem of the explosion in red tape in this country. That's what you get when you blow up the bureaucracy and get city based bureaucrats making decisions and imposing regulatory burdens on the economy. That is one absolute, surefire way of causing a cost-of-living crisis. And that wasn't us, by the way. That has happened on the watch of this Prime Minister.

The other problem, of course, is the war on energy and the net zero hoax. If ever asked what we could be doing—although the question has to be, 'What can we actually do?'—my response is, 'Drill, baby, drill.' We should be drilling everywhere we can. We should be drilling in the Great Australian Bight, all over the Top End—

and in downtown Victoria, Senator Babet—wherever it may be—because cheap energy is a surefire way to get this economy moving, to put downward pressure on inflation and to put Australians back into the position where we can afford to do things like manufacture again in this country. We are effectively now at the behest of these global energy markets that we hear so much about. That hasn't just happened because it's happened; it's happened because of the war on cheap energy, and that is a serious problem.

So what does this side of the chamber propose to do about it? If given the opportunity at the next election, this side of politics will support policy that's in the best interests of this country on every single level. We will support the resources industry; our farmers, who do so much heavy lifting; and those domestic manufacturers that are still in business at this point, and we'll make sure that they thrive and prosper here. We'll do what we always do: we'll back small business. The war on small business has got to be over. Ask a small-business person at the moment how they're tracking. With the IR laws that are to be passed by this parliament at some point, that's only going to get worse.

This side of the chamber will do everything it can to support households and families across Australia, who are doing it tough at the moment. These hikes in inflation and other cost burdens to households and businesses will be right in the gunsight of this opposition.