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

Despite all the bluff and bluster of those opposite, the facts are that, 2½ years ago, Anthony Albanese, now our Prime Minister, promised all Australians that life would be cheaper under Labor. They would have cheaper mortgages. They would have cheaper electricity, and everybody would be better off.

Those opposite can say black is white and sit there and talk about everything else but the cost of living, but, far from being Australia's saviour, I think the best analogy is that he is the emperor with new clothes. In fact, nobody on that side of the chamber, including the Greens, has got the courage to tell him that he has no clothes on. The tragedy for all Australians, including Western Australians, is the reality that hardworking families, hardworking households and small businesses are doing it incredibly tough.

No matter how much those opposite refuse to tell the Prime Minister the truth, Australians are not stupid. They know exactly what has happened, after 2½ years, to their household budgets. Everything that they spend, every bill they have, has gone up around about 10 per cent or, in some cases, more. It never had to be this way. It hasn't just happened; it has happened because of the deliberate policies that those opposite have implemented.

What are some of the facts? In just 2½ years, 27,000 small businesses, which are the backbone of this economy, have been forced to shut up shop. In Western Australia, small businesses make up 97 per cent of all businesses, but over a thousand went to the wall because they could no longer afford the cost of doing business. For average Western Australians, in fact for all Western Australians, whether it's a trip to the supermarket, opening up their power bills, seeing the mortgage rise and rise or the cost of their insurance, everything has been going up.

We've also learnt, today, that Western Australia has endured the biggest fall in bulk-billing by GPs across the country under those opposite. For all of the rhetoric that it's all roses for those who need to access their GP, we have the biggest fall in bulk-billing. In fact, in WA, only 6.2 per cent of clinics are bulk-billing patients, meaning that is one clinic per 46,500 Western Australians that bulk bill. Western Australians are paying the most for a visit to a GP. The out-of-pocket expenses for one visit to a GP in Western Australia is now $42.66, and that is just for a standard GP appointment, which is putting even further pressure on Western Australian household budgets.

No matter what those opposite say, no matter how much they deny it, no matter how much they do not want to tell the Prime Minister that his new clothes are transparent, he thinks he's the great emperor, coming into this country to save Australians. But he's a bit like George Costanza. George Costanza learnt that he had to do everything that he said he wasn't going to do. All his instincts were wrong, so he had to go against his instincts. This Prime Minister's instincts for managing the economy, health, education, disability, mortgages and housing—we heard today that those opposite have not built a single house under their housing policy. Not a single house has been delivered, and that is to the detriment of all Western Australians. Shame on you! Western Australians and other Australians have woken up to you.