Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the matter of public importance put forward by my colleague Senator Dean Smith. I also acknowledge the work that he has done on the Cost of Living Select Committee, which has revealed that things have gone from bad to very bad to even worse under this Labor government. 'Homegrown Jimflation', as described by the Daily Telegraph, has been eating away at the standard of living in our country, with Australians enduring a per capita recession that nobody in this government wants to admit or talk about.

Disposable income in this country is down by 7½ per cent. This is a huge loss of income at a time when fuel, energy, housing, groceries, insurance and everything—including, literally, the kitchen sink—costs more. In the Sydney Morning Herald today there was an article referencing the Commonwealth Bank insights from April. This article says that, just in the last 12 months, April to April—a year-on-year change—education has gone up 10.8 per cent, utilities have gone up nine per cent, motor vehicle costs are up 3½ per cent and insurance is up 9.6 per cent. These are increases in the last year. Health is up 6.1 per cent, household services are up 4.5 per cent, communication and digital services are up two per cent, transport is up 4.7 per cent and recreation is up 2.7 per cent. This is extraordinary.

Australians are struggling under this government and its inflationary policies which currently see inflation sitting at 3.6 per cent, almost double the RBA's target band of one to two per cent. It is tipped to stay higher for longer. What does that mean? That means that interest rates are not coming down any time soon. Australians are suffering under these decades-high interest rates. There have been 12 rate rises since Labor came into power in this country. This has meant that many Australian families and small businesses haven't been able to put food on the table or keep a roof over their heads or it has meant that they have had to close their family business.

What has this government done about it? This government has delegated the responsibility of managing inflation to the Reserve Bank. What is the lever that the Reserve Bank has to use in order to manage inflation? Increasing interest rates. That's placing the entire burden of managing inflation in this country on the shoulders of Australians with a mortgage. That's who's carrying the burden. It's not large corporations, not large institutions and not this government but Australians with a mortgage. That is entirely unacceptable.

Think for a moment about young Australians who believe that no matter how hard they work they will never be able to own their own home. That is entirely unacceptable. Think for a moment about young Australians who scrimped and saved in order to get a deposit together, going back 18 months or two years, and finally believed that they had succeeded in achieving the Australian dream of owning their own home. Those 12 successive interest rate rises have now turned that dream into a living nightmare as they attempt to cut costs to be able to continue to keep their home. Do you know what the primary cost that Australians are cutting in this cost-of-living crisis? It's food. They are reducing the amount of food that they buy. It is a complete and utter shame that Australians are putting less in their shopping trolley and buying less food because their electricity, petrol, mortgage, rent and all of their other costs have gone through the roof. That is a shame on this government. What makes the situation even more egregious is that this government stands here and pretends that it is offering some kind of cost-of-living relief to Australians.