Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is not my first speech. Australia is in a cost-of-living recession right now. Over the past 18 months we've seen real net disposable income per person go down by 8.6 per cent. It's never been so dramatic and it's never been so rapid. If you're an average full-time earner on $95,000 a year, you've seen your real disposable income fall by $8,000 a year or $150 per week.

Working Australians are being hit right now by a triple tsunami. They're being hit by higher income tax. Personal income tax collections have increased by 27 per cent since Labor came to office, which means people are taking home less of their pay. They've been hit by higher mortgage repayments because of higher interest rates. There have been 12 interest rate rises now under the Labor government. We've seen mortgage repayments go from $11 billion per quarter to $29 billion per quarter, so more of people's take-home pay is having to go to service the mortgage. Finally, we have high inflation, which the RBA has confirmed is a homegrown problem. Food's up by nine per cent, electricity by 23 per cent and gas by 29 per cent. That means that people, after paying higher taxes and more on their mortgage, are left with less money, which buys fewer groceries and fewer back-to-school supplies, and people are less able to pay their electricity and gas bills.

During this debate, and from those opposite today, we've heard Labor crowing about the U-turn they've executed, boasting about a broken promise and daring the coalition to vote against them. They've abandoned the stage 3 tax cuts that they took to the last election, that they voted to put into legislation and that they confirmed on over 100 separate occasions. You'd think from listening to them today that they'd fixed the cost-of-living crisis they've presided over. But based on Labor's own figures, a person on an average annual wage is going to receive an extra $800 a year or $15 a week under Labor's amended tax cuts. So they've lost $8,000 a year or $150 a week and they're only going to get an extra $800 a year or $15 a week.

To listen to this government's boasting—they're like arsonists who've set fire to their own house and are now daring us to deny them the garden hose. We're not. We're not going to stand in the way of a tax cut for people already being smashed by Labor's cost-of-living crisis, but we are going to point out that this is woefully insufficient and that Labor is simply seeking to alleviate the symptoms but not treat the disease of high inflation and escalating cost of living, a disease they have made considerably worse. We are going to point out that this is a broken promise and goes to the heart of issues of integrity from a leader who promised us all that his word was his bond.

Today we've also been discussing Labor's so-called closing loopholes bill, which they've rushed onto immediately after breaking their promise on the stage 3 tax cuts. This is not so much a closing loopholes bill as a creating burdens bill. Will it address inflation? No, it will make it worse. Will it improve productivity? No, it will make that worse. Will it reduce complexity? No, it will add to complexity. Will it promote flexibility? No, it's going to make that worse. This bill—