Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Grogan, I can't help you with a collective noun for South Australians. I can think of a few for Labor governments, but I can't mention them in this place.

This was a very telling question time. We saw a complete failure once again from this government to take seriously what Senator Fawcett did so clearly enunciate as the issue—the only issue that we hear about day in and day out—which is the cost-of-living crisis. What did we see from those opposite in terms of their own questions—their Dorothy Dixers? We saw them talk about a 'Future Made in Australia', a slogan with absolutely nothing behind it. We saw them talk about the Olympics. It reminds you a bit of bread and circuses, doesn't it? Bread and circuses—that's what this government does. It doesn't do actual policy. It doesn't do any of the heavy lifting required in the economy to take pressure off struggling Australian families. It does bread and circuses.

When asked about the cost of living, they rolled out the same trite answer they have been rolling out for, I think, over a year now. If we went back to question time a year ago, we'd hear about cheaper child care and lower costs of medicines. The Australian people don't buy it. They don't buy that this government has done a thing to try to improve their standard of living, to try and take the pressure off them in this cost-of-living crisis, because you know what? With a few hundred dollars in terms of energy bill relief, people's energy bills have gone up by thousands of dollars—thousands of dollars. I have talked to individual small businesses whose energy bills have gone up by $10,000 a quarter.