James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

What is disappointing today is the realisation that this government is just so out of touch with what is going on out in the real world. We don't just have a Canberra bubble; we have this perspex, fibreglass, brick wall bubble around Canberra that seems to be shielding the Labor Party and the Labor Party ministers from what's going on out in the real world. Indeed, their only interaction with the real world is when the secretary of the Labor Party, Mr Paul Erickson, wanders up the hill with his union funded research to tell the Labor Party, 'This is what's happening out in the real world.' There is a cost-of-living crisis out in the real world. There's actually a crime crisis out in the real world.

We just saw in the Queensland election only a few weeks ago that Queenslanders understood that the Liberal National Party, with its priorities and focus on the cost-of-living crisis, the crime crisis, the housing crisis and the health crisis, had the plan, the vision and the knowledge to get on with the job. That's why the LNP won a substantial victory on 26 October and that's why I believe that, with Mr Albanese having bought his retirement home, it would be rude of us to stop him from moving into his retirement home sooner rather than later. I would encourage the Prime Minister to call an election—whenever; we'll be there—because my reading of the people around Queensland in particular is that there is a mood for change to get rid of this Labor Party because of the cost-of-living crisis but also because of the failure of the Prime Minister and those ministers who sit around the cabinet table to keep their word.

We have a Prime Minister who said his word is his bond. Well, he broke his word and he has broken his bond. He's broken everything. The promises that Labor took to the last election, in particular in relation to energy bills and mortgages, have not just been broken by the Labor Party and by the Prime Minister; they've been trampled on, picked up, chewed up, spat out and then run over again. Such is the disregard of the Prime Minister and the Labor Party for the truth when it comes to keeping their promises not only in relation to power bills but also in relation to mortgages. The Prime Minister promised 97 times before the last election that power bills would go down by $275. There is not one Australian who would say that their power bill has gone down by $275 or, indeed, has gone down at all.

Every Australian's power bill has gone up since Labor have been elected to office. Power bills have gone up not just by a small amount; they've gone up by huge amounts. Look at the cost of gas. It's gone up 33 per cent. But it's not just power; it's everything else that's gone up. Health costs have gone up 10.5 per cent. Education costs have gone up 11.2 per cent. Food has gone up 12.3 per cent. Housing has gone up 13.1 per cent. Rents are up 16.3 per cent. Insurance has gone up 17.3 per cent. This is hurting Australians.

There are lessons from around the world, and people are taking the wrong lessons, in my view, out of the American election. The reason that Donald Trump won is that he focused on the bread-and-butter issues of the cost-of-living crisis impacting Americans. It's the reason why we've seen a change of government in Sri Lanka, why the Japanese governing party had a big swing against it, why Macron had a big swing against him and why the Conservatives lost.

The lesson for the Labor Party is that the mob are coming for you because you made promises before the last election, you've broken the promises since the last election and you do not understand how tough people are doing it. The mob are coming for you because of the cost-of-living crisis impacting Australians, and you should be scared. I would encourage the Labor Party and some of those Labor backbenchers to choose a nice font for your CVs—Times New Roman or Arial—because Peter Dutton is going to win the next election, David Littleproud is going to be his Deputy Prime Minister and it will be a government on the side of the people.