Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a bloodbath out there. Australians are doing it tough under the Albanese government. Labour productivity is down 7.5 per cent over the last 18 months. Real disposable income has fallen by 7.5 per cent. Personal income taxes are up by 23 per cent, much higher than before the election. And labour income from self-employment has fallen by eight per cent. Why is that? It's because the Albanese Labor government have lost control the economy. They have let immigration run too high at over 500,000 people a year, and they have allowed interest rates to rocket upwards, causing building contractors to go broke. So not only have we got increasing demand for housing but also decreasing supply, so the gap between those people who can actually find a house and those people who can get into one is increasing all the time. That is a direct result of a reckless policy. I don't recall Australians ever being told at the last election that we were going to suddenly double—actually triple—immigration from levels pre-election of around 280,000 to around 550,000, and that is totally reckless. We're yet to hear the Albanese Labor government explain the reason for this. Why are they allowing this to happen? We are seeing tent cities rise up everywhere, even in my home town of Brisbane in parks. You cannot walk across a park or see a park now without a tent being pitched there. Just across from my electoral office is a park. We've got tents there.

And, of course, the other big contribution to the cost of living is the enormous increase in energy prices as a result of the Albanese government's reckless rush into renewable energy. The way they're doing this is by heavily subsidising what is effectively unaffordable. So not only have we got increased energy prices; we have got wasted taxpayers' funds in these subsidies trying to prop up something that without subsidies wouldn't work. Just yesterday, I know that the energy minister, Chris Bowen, was skiting about how they'd spent $5 billion on batteries that will provide backup storage for just one million houses. How on earth is spending $5 billion to provide a couple of hours of storage for one million houses considered cheap, reliable and effective? It's not. The Albanese government is out of control, and they need to get their act together.

Question agreed to.