Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition will be opposing this amendment. This proposal, announced by the government, shows the Albanese government has given up on the fight against inflation. It reeks of elitism and unfairness. Having failed to address the cost of living at its source, Labor has now decided to start running the ruler over who will vote for them and who won't without addressing the higher inflation. What this risks is higher interest rates for longer and higher inflation.

This proposal by Labor is not how to manage the economy. The best way to bring down inflation is to tackle the problem at its source. This requires getting the economy back on track and back to basics, reining in wasteful government spending and boosting productivity to relieve price pressures. Instead, what Labor is proposing to do is to spend more, raise taxes and add cost to the supply side of the economy that is only going to make inflation worse. This has been broadly discredited by leading independent economists. The Prime Minister has had 2½ years to get inflation under control. He's now robbing future generations to try and cover up what Australians are already realising: Labor is not up to the job of fixing the economy.

What's also clear here is that this policy excludes 24 million Australians who do not have a HELP debt and who are struggling with Labor's cost-of-living crisis. It just passes this debt onto all Australians—$16 billion, or $1,600 per household—and, of course, as I mentioned before, it reeks of unfairness and elitism. More than 55,000 people have a HELP debt of between $100,000 and $200,000, meaning that, under this policy, Labor would deliver them an average pay cheque of around $25,000. So some people get $25,000 and some people get a piddling amount, but most Australians get nothing at all. How is this fair when so many young Australians can barely pay the rent or put food on the table? That is why the coalition will not support this amendment.