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

Where to begin? It's quite interesting. I think I'll start with one of the comments that Senator Wong made to my colleague Senator McGrath. I think she said, 'We are in a far better place than we were a long time ago.' I was stunned by that statement, because I think that even if I tried really, really, really hard I wouldn't be able to find one single person that is better off today than they were three years ago. We've had some 990 days of this government, and wherever I go and whoever I speak to the regular messaging I get is how hard it is for them: how they're struggling, how they can't cope, how there is a mental and psychological toll connected to the financial toll of the cost-of-living crisis that we are all enduring.

My colleague on the other side made a comment about how we tend to talk down the achievements of the Labor government. We're actually talking about the facts of what this government have delivered, and their legacy is a cost-of-living crisis, a housing crisis, a crisis of small business insolvencies, and an antisemitism crisis. That's the legacy of this government. What we need them when we ask these questions—when we ask the questions that the Australian public rightfully deserve to know the answers to—are clear and straight answers, not some kind of talking-point concoction of different statistics that sort of make it look like they might be doing a good job.

Everybody knows how hard it is out there, and the Australia public deserves to know what this government is going to do about it. And there isn't much time left. We don't know when the election is going to be. We don't know if we've got a month or two months or three months. Perhaps that's where the focus is now, instead of running the economy and serving the interests of the Australian public, because that attention is certainly not where it should be. The attention is probably a little bit too much on Peter Dutton. The people on the other side speak about the Leader of the Opposition constantly. And I understand why. When you're lacking leadership in government, you're looking to somebody that might actually be able to deliver some results.

The thing you need to understand is that we don't have to provide all of the answers in opposition. In government you should be providing those answers. You should be able to tell us what you are going to do and why you haven't been able to deliver what you should have delivered. I'll tell you what you have delivered for small businesses: higher rents, supply chain problems, skyrocketing insurance premiums, utility and wage bills going through the roof, and just red tape after red tape after red tape—and much more expensive raw materials.

Questions around business insolvencies remain largely unanswered. But I have the answers for you. Since this government took office 27,036 businesses have gone under. In a housing crisis, it is devastating to know, even more than usually, that 7,183 of those businesses were in construction. A further 4,191 were hospitality businesses. Hospitality businesses are one of the largest employers of women in our economy. A further 1,765 of those businesses were retailers, small shops—maybe the local hairdresser, a pet-wash business, a local pharmacy, a local butcher or bakery. A further 1,383 were manufacturers—people, small businesses that made stuff here in Australia for other Australians to buy. Thirteen hundred and eighty-three have closed down since Anthony Albanese became our Prime Minister. That is a terrible shame, and that is an indictment on this government.

I don't understand how anybody can sit there and pretend that this isn't a real problem and then point to the good news story that we have more new businesses, so we don't have to worry about all the families that have been crushed by the loss of their family businesses. That is unacceptable. If you don't recognise you have a problem, you can't solve it.