Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of answers provided in question time today by the government. I was somewhat incredulous, and then I wasn't, when I heard a senator opposite say they couldn't understand why we were asking questions about cost-of-living pressures on Australian families. I thought that really said everything about how out of touch this government really is. I can assure them that everybody on this side of the Senate chamber knows and understands, because we are out there talking to Australian families and Australian workers every day.

There is not a day, not a visit, that goes by in my home state of Western Australia where Western Australians are not saying how much they have been impacted by the cost-of-living rises that have occurred in less than two years under this government. And it's not just one or two areas where they're coming under cost pressures; it is in everything that they buy and spend money on. Food is up nine per cent. Petrol is up 27 per cent. There have been 12 interest rate hikes in just over 12 months under those opposite, and, on average, Australians and Western Australians are now paying at least $24,000 extra per year in their mortgage payments.

In Western Australia, in particular, housing is so expensive. It's not just the extra $24,000 a year on average in mortgages; those Western Australians who rent know just how expensive it now is. Rents have increased by over 26 per cent, and first home buyers and new approvals remain at their lowest levels in more than a decade. In WA the median house price has risen over 21 per cent, and rents in Western Australia have risen by nearly 50 per cent under those opposite. That is a complete disgrace. Just to afford the average mortgage in Perth, families will need to earn over $115,000 a year, all at a time when real wages have decreased under those opposite. To make it even worse, in Perth we have the lowest rental vacancy rates in Australia, at less than 0.4 per cent.

Not only have those opposite federally made it incredibly difficult for Western Australians to afford to eat and buy the necessities, but now, with their proposed taxes for cars, people will be paying $25,000 more for a Toyota LandCruiser, $17,000 more for a Ford Ranger and nearly $15,000 more for a Toyota HiLux. These are the tools of trade of families and workers in Western Australia.

Question agreed to.