Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, 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.

What we saw today was more spin from the government in relation to wages and the economy from a government that isn't prepared to admit the reality of the situation. The reality of the situation that workers in this country know and understand is that the cost of living is going up and the value of wages isn't keeping up with it. The value of real wages is going backwards in this country. Before the election, this government promised an increase in real wages. They promised a lowering cost of housing. They promised a lower cost of living. They promised a $275 reduction in energy prices. None of those things is occurring, all because of government policy. It doesn't matter how much the Labor Party spin. It doesn't matter how much they talk about getting real wages moving. Actually, they don't say 'real wages'; they say 'getting wages moving again'—their tricky language. Australians understand the reality that they are going backwards. To quote a phrase from the Labor Party before the election, 'Everything is going up except your wages.'

They can roll out all the talking points they like. They can roll out the insults to people on this side of the chamber. They can do all of those things, but it doesn't change the reality for Australians that this is a government of broken promises. They can spin the situation, but Australians know that they are paying more tax now than they were paying when the Labor Party came to government. They can talk about the changes to the stage 3 tax cuts, but they forget to say that they, as the Labor Party and as a new government, allowed the low-income tax offset to expire. It was their decision in government. They were in charge of the Treasury bench when that occurred, so people are paying up to $1,500 more tax.

When it comes to how much tax people are paying, people—particularly those on low incomes—are actually paying more tax than they were when this government came to government. So it doesn't matter how much they spin, and it doesn't matter how they try and throw mud across to this side of the chamber; people understand that. They promised them, alongside the $275 reduction in energy prices, lower housing costs and a lower cost of living. None of those things is coming to fruition, and Australians know that. Australians understand that. They remember the promises, and they understand the reality of the fact that things are becoming more and more difficult.

They talk about building more houses. They're going to build fewer houses than were built in the last five years. They talk about the money that they're spending on energy cost relief. Only Labor could spend $1.3 billion to see power bills go up, when they promised a reduction of $275. They continually roll out the tricky language. They continually make reflections on those on this side of the chamber, but they're not prepared to actually be honest with the Australian people and talk about the facts. The facts are that things are not as they promised they would be before the election. Power prices have gone up, not down. Housing costs have gone up, not down. The cost of living is clearly going up, instead of down. And what do they do? They try to deflect the costs to the supermarkets. They deflect the blame to the supermarkets rather than dealing with the issue themselves.

Of course, all through this their policy is killing productivity, which the Reserve Bank said was critical to lowering the cost of living. The Reserve Bank also said that government policy wasn't shifting the dial. So if you're not doing something you're not helping. That's what the Reserve Bank said—government policy, in terms of inflation, doesn't shift the dial. So if you're not doing something you're not helping, and this government is not helping the Australian people.