James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

You can hear all the whittering and cackling over there, but they don't understand how business operates and they don't understand how the economy operates. If you put $315 billion worth of extra spending into the economy, guess what will happen? It will push up inflation. This is what is happening in Australia at the moment. Everything is going up in price.

If the Labor politicians were to deign to leave this fear that is Canberra and go out into the real world, like we do in the coalition, they would understand that Australians are doing it tough. I just did a 10-day trip, going from Brisbane out to Gundy, Eromanga, Windorah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Mount Isa, then back down to Barcaldine, the birthplace of the Labor Party. You wouldn't know it there now. The Tree of Knowledge is dead, just like the modern Labor Party in terms of its understanding of working Australians and how the cost of living is hurting them. Guess what the No. 1 issue was that people spoke to me about in all of those communities in south-western, western and north-western Queensland? It was how expensive everything is under this Labor Party government.

This Labor Party government doesn't have a long-term plan, and the budget showed that last night. The budget last night was just a shopping list of spending items. It was like the Treasurer and the finance minister decided, 'We'll spend all this money on these items.' It was interesting watching the Treasurer last night and watching the look on the Prime Minister's face. He looked like an extra from The Muppet Show. He was sitting there, slightly stunned, going, 'I didn't know about this.' It looked like it was the first time the Prime Minister had heard what was in the budget. We have a prime minister who is semidetached from being prime minister. He is semidetached from understanding what is going on in Australia and actually understanding what needs to happen as prime minister. I mean, it is nice that the Prime Minister has decided to be in the country, and we should give him a golf clap for spending some time here and not racking up his frequent-flyer points on the VIP aircraft. But it would be nice to have a prime minister like Peter Dutton—someone who understands that inflation is the No. 1 issue facing Australia in terms of how we get our economy back on the right track.

The budget last night was a complete and utter dud when it came to helping Australians. This is how interesting it was. The Labor Party, with that budget last night—because they're very good at throwing out taxpayers' cash everywhere, instead of targeting the money to those who are doing it tough, instead of targeting it to the families across Australia—were happy to send money to some of the richest people in Australia. They were happy to spend money propping up big business. They were happy to spend money at the big end of town.

This Labor Party has forgotten regional Queensland; this Labor Party has forgotten suburban Brisbane—this Labor Party has forgotten everybody in Queensland, because all they care about is themselves. All they care about is doing whatever it takes to win elections, rather than helping those Australians who are doing it tough. And inflation is what is causing the toughness for Australians. It would've been nice to have a budget that fixed it, but last night's budget was a dud.