Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

This week Labor senators have made much of the number of sleeps that Australian households have—four sleeps, apparently—before Australians get to see the very, very light relief in the form of cost-of-living measures from this government. But instead of counting sleeps, unfortunately Australian households are losing sleep, as a result of the inflation figures that were released just yesterday. And everyone should be reminded that Dr Chalmers, the federal Treasurer, on the eve of the federal budget in May, trumpeted the fact that the government was on top of the inflation challenge in this country. In fact, Dr Chalmers said that the mission had been accomplished, that the task of tackling inflation had been accomplished. Don't believe me; believe the Australian, which trumpeted the headline 'CPI mission accomplished by Christmas'. It said:

Jim Chalmers will put the government's economic credibility on the line 12 months out from the election, with Treasury forecasts in Tuesday's budget expecting inflation to hit the 2-3 per cent target band by December …

'Mission accomplished,' Dr Chalmers said. I say, 'Mission impossible,' because the government's economic record is making Australians poorer. Labor is hurting Australian households: 13 interest rate rises since May 2022.

Yesterday the RBA released data indicating the fastest interest rate increase, a jump from 3.6 per cent in April to four per cent in May. Worse than that, core inflation is sitting at 4.4 per cent in the last 12 months, up from 4.1 per cent. And money markets, which give us a sense of what the economic future might look like for Australian households, are now saying they are pricing almost a 60 per cent chance of an interest rate rise by September—a 60 per cent chance of an interest rate rise, on top of the 13 rate increases that Australian families have already had to work hard to get on top of.

This is a government that does not care about the economic and financial ruin that it is putting Australian households through. And they're Australian households; this is not being experienced internationally. Australia has now seen four months of increasing core inflation, which is now sitting higher than in an any other country in the G10, including the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. Australians are hurting, because the government chooses to make them poorer. This is particularly important because, on the eve of the election in May 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that he had a plan that would make mortgages cheaper for Australians, that he had a plan that would make energy cheaper. In fact, in just two years, this Labor government has presided over a deteriorating economic situation which is making it harder for Australian households.

Australian households know these figures themselves. The price of gas is up by 22.2 per cent, electricity by 21.5 per cent, insurance and financial services by 16.2 per cent, housing by 14 per cent, food by 11.4 per cent, health care by 11 per cent and education by 10.9 per cent. And Australians' real disposable incomes over the last two years have fallen by almost eight per cent per capita in the two years to March 2024. What we hear from the government is a lack of concern for the very real financial stress Australian households are under. So, Sam Lim in Tangney, Tracy Roberts in Pearce, Anne Aly in Cowan and Tanya Lawrence in Hasluck: you must face up to the Australian people, your electors, and explain why Labor is making it harder, why Labor is making them poorer.