Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, what a load of rubbish. Let's have a look at the facts about what those opposite are actually doing to Australians in general and to the Western Australians I represent. Western Australia is the economic powerhouse of our nation, but this government's ideological policies have declared nothing short of war on the west—on the cost of living for every single family in Western Australia and on our industries, particularly our mining sector. This inevitably will have a terrible impact on jobs in my state.

Those opposite talk about rhetoric and how life is wonderful for Australians under them. Well, I'll tell you what: I am sure that not one of the people here in the gallery and the people listening all across Australia will stand up and say, 'We feel better off after 2½ years of Labor.' Let me tell you what those opposite have done. They actually inherited an economy with low unemployment and strong growth. Also, there was a strong financial recovery underway. And you inherited, among the G20 nations and probably most nations, the strongest recovering economy in the world post COVID. And what have you done? What have you squandered and what have you done to the Australian people?

National account growth is down. Living standards are down. Productivity is down. The government has spent this term fighting everything but inflation. And what has this done for the Australian people? It has caused their cost of living to skyrocket. Mortgage interest rates have tripled under those opposite. Gas is up 33 per cent. Electricity is up 14 per cent, and that is after the subsidies that this government provided. Rents are up 16 per cent. Health costs are up 11 per cent. Education costs are up 11 per cent. Food—food for families—is up 12 per cent. Finance and insurance costs are up 17 per cent. Personal income tax is up 25 per cent. No matter what those opposite say—they try to say, 'People are much better off. Australians are much better off underneath us. Australian workers are much better off with us.' What a lie. It is simply not true. The facts, the data, speaks for itself.

The Prime Minister's train wreck of a press conference this week demonstrates he still does not get it. He does not have an economic plan for this nation, and he doesn't have a plan to help struggling Australians. He certainly does not have a plan to help Western Australians and to ensure that the Western Australian mining sector can continue to grow—instead of putting the brakes on it, or declaring war on it, as he currently is doing.

Mr Albanese's tone-deaf speech to the Minerals Council dinner in Canberra last week really demonstrated without question just how much he does not understand the mining sector in this nation. He talked about, with great platitudes, all of the amazing things those opposite are doing for the sector. The sad truth is not a single word was true. As the sector said very clearly, 'You are doing everything you can to destroy the sector, and that includes our critical minerals sector. You are not doing anything, despite the rhetoric, to help build new industries.' We need the new minerals sector. We need it for the environment. We need it for every single piece of new energy technology that we have today. We need a wide range of new minerals. Those opposite say, 'We're helping the sector.' No, you are not.

Today, investors in the minerals sector have many more investment opportunities than here in Australia. And guess what? They're going elsewhere, to countries that don't have the same environmental standards and to countries that use slave labour. Those opposite know—it's your dirty little secret—that, if they go offshore, China and other nations go to countries where they use slave labour and have poor environmental standards. Shame on you all.