Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice today, particularly those given by the Minister representing the Treasurer (Minister Gallagher).

To hear this government talk about inflation, you'd think that their fight against it is going well. They're fond of quoting the inflationary figure when they came to office. In June 2022, Australia's inflation figure, at an annualised rate, was 6.1 per cent. But, at the same time, in the eurozone it was 8.6 per cent. In the United States, it was 9.1 per cent. In Canada, it was 8.1 per cent. So when the Labor government came to office, inflation in Australia was lower than benchmarked advanced economies around the world—several percentage points lower.

This is the picture today: inflation in Australia is 3.5 per cent annualised, higher if you look at core inflation, but in the eurozone it's 2.2 per cent; in the United States, it's 2.9 per cent; in Canada, it's 2.5 per cent. Inflation was several points lower than other advanced economies when the coalition left office. Now, with Labor in government, two years later, it's several points higher. This is why interest rates are higher in Australia than they need to be, because the government is not getting control of inflation.

We heard the Minister representing the Treasurer say, 'Our economic plan is supporting economic growth.' But the only thing supporting economic growth in this country is immigration running at record highs. We are in a per-capita real GDP recession. We have now had six negative quarters of real GDP per capita growth. That's the largest per capita recession in Australia in 50 years. Real net disposable income per person—this is a measure of how well off or otherwise people feel—is down 8.6 per cent over the past 18 months. So if you wonder why people feel poorer, why households are complaining about the cost of living, this is why: because there is no economic plan from the Labor Party.

We've seen a collapse in productivity. It's down by 6.3 per cent. And we've seen that the only economic measure this government has is an expansion of the public sector. Of the 209,000 new jobs created in the first six months of this year, 2024, one in two of them were public sector jobs, or in the non-market sector. In a normally functioning economy, that would be one in seven. Instead, it was one in two.

We also heard from the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Watt, who claimed that industrial disruption was at an all-time low. In fact, under this Labor government there have been 36,700 days lost to industrial action every quarter. Compare that to the number during the coalition's nine years in office; it was 23,600. So days lost to industrial action is 50 per cent higher under Labor, the result of their sclerotic, union-friendly industrial relations regime they are forcing down the throats of Australian corporations.

If households are wondering why they are feeling worse off, this is why—because their real incomes are not increasing and there is no productivity growth and no productivity agenda from this government. They are paying more in taxes because of bracket creep. This government is collecting record amounts of income tax, and their stage 3 tax cuts, even on their own forward estimates, are going to take more in receipts. You're paying more for your mortgage because interest rates are higher than they should be, despite countless warnings from the Reserve Bank that government spending is too high and keeping inflation higher than it needs to be. Despite all the evidence from economists, respected institutions and people in the financial markets, the government refuses to accept this and instead seeks to blame the Reserve Bank.

In other advanced economies around the world, central banks are cutting interest rates. The Bank of Canada is cutting interest rates. Eurozone is cutting interest rates. The Bank of England has cut interest rates. The US Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates. Only in Australia is the central bank, the Reserve Bank, saying that there are no interest rate cuts on the horizon and certainly not this year, because inflation is too high. As I said before, when this government came to office, it inherited inflation that was several percentage points lower than other advanced economies. It is now presiding over inflation that is several percentage points higher.

That is why people are paying more for a life's everyday essentials—because inflation in this country is out of control. This government does not have an economic plan to address the economic challenges facing Australia. They need to come up with one.