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

I would like to thank Senator Hughes for bringing this matter of public importance, because, as we know and as I have spoken about time and time again in this place, the cost-of-living crisis in our country is the most important issue affecting everyday Australians. It is the most important issue affecting young Australians. It is the most important issue affecting Australian families. People are struggling and juggling every single day just to make ends meet and buy the things that they and their families need.

Yet, in the face of this, we continue to see inaction on the part of the government, and special little accounting tricks and special little rebates that everybody gets, not just people who need it, because you can't quite work out who needs it and who doesn't, and now an attempt to destroy the credibility of and confidence in the independent Reserve Bank of our country. The Reserve Bank has one lever—monetary policy—to lift interest rates. They don't have any other levers at their disposal. They act on the basis of what's occurring in our economy. And what is occurring in our economy is homegrown inflation as a result of the actions and inactions of this government.

It was extraordinary last week to see the Treasurer pointing at the independent governor of our Reserve Bank and blaming her, her team and the board for high interest rates—blaming them for using the one lever they have at their disposal to bring down inflation. That is incredibly unfair, and it is not very good leadership, in my view. Interest rates have hit mortgage holders. Interest rates have hit renters. Interest rates have hit small businesses. Everybody is struggling. And the reality is that this government just keeps spending, based on a predetermined agenda that they are trying to keep to, despite the fact that it's very clear that it is having significant impacts on our economy and that Australians continue to suffer.

Let's face the absolute reality here. It is this government that is forcing the hand of the RBA, and we have been talking about that for months and months. I've been talking about it all year, as have my colleagues. So, Senator Hughes has rightly put this as a matter of public importance today.

Senator O'Neill talked about this energy rebate and how that is helping Australian families and helping to bring down inflation. But Senator O'Neill didn't speak about the fact that it's our own tax dollars that are being given back to us in a rebate to bring down our electricity bills. So this isn't even going near the promised cut to power bills that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer couldn't stop talking about before the last election. It doesn't even come close to delivering that. But that's pretty much the government's solution to most of the economic problems we have—to just find a new way to spend, spend, spend.

They have now focused on the election in May—or it could be in March or it could be in December. That is when they are going to face the Australian people, who are going to ask them why they have had to struggle and juggle the way they have and why we are global laggards when it comes to managing inflation—why they've looked for short-term gains and completely failed to engage with the critical task of fixing the root cause of our inflation.

Why are we at the back of the pack when it comes to tackling inflation? Our core inflation rate is higher than that of comparable economies, our contemporaries, and it's been here for longer. And our living standards have fallen. Yet this government continues to blame the former government, and now they are blaming the RBA instead of acting themselves.