Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator O'Sullivan:

The Prime Minister said before the election that Australians will be better off under a Labor government; however, since the election, Australian families are paying more for their food, power prices have skyrocketed and have faced the highest scheduled mortgage payments in history.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of sena tors required by the standing orders having risen in their places

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to present this matter of public importance, but I do so with a real sense of regret that this is the environment we are facing right now. The truth of the matter is we are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis this country has seen in over three decades, and it's being presided over by this government. Cost of living is the single biggest issue that Australians are facing every single day, yet those on the other side roll around each day looking for others to blame. They blame the Reserve Bank governor, they blame the Ukraine war, they blame the previous government. They continue to go on, other than taking responsibility for it themselves.

Rather than seeking to fix spiralling inflation, this government pours fuel on the fire. It does nothing about its own fiscal policy while the RBA simultaneously is trying to address monetary policy. The government's actions add to upward inflation pressures; that's what the Reserve Bank has said. This is the reality. During a cost-of-living crisis when inflation is rampant, no-one is a winner. High inflation is not selective; it affects every aspect of society. Everyone is facing this cost-of-living crisis.

ABS data shows an annual rise in food prices of between seven and eight per cent, and an annual rise in utilities of between 12 and 14 per cent. That's what Australians are facing. Every time they go down to the grocery store they're seeing those rising costs, and it's affecting them. They're having to make some really tough choices. Every time that utility bill arrives in the mail and they open it up, they're seeing significant increases. And this government is all talk but no action. It is not addressing the fundamental issues of this cost-of-living crisis.

The Australian Financial Review reported today that more than one in 10 firms in the retail, hospitality and construction sectors are at risk of going bankrupt in the next 12 months as high interest rates and consumer slowdown heap pressure on company finances. That is awful because that means jobs in these important industries. People working in retail and people working in hospitality are finding it difficult. These businesses are finding it difficult. The cost-of-living crisis is biting at the heels of the retail industry. We've seen Myer report today that their growth has ground to a halt. They saw double-digit growth figures in the first half of last financial year, and their growth has only increased by 0.4 per cent in the last six months. This is happening across retail. It's happening across hospitality. Anyone running a hospitality business will tell you this; you go into the cafes across our cities, across our regional towns, and you will see that they are struggling. People are having to make tough choices. They're choosing between discretionary funding and paying their mortgage. That's what's happening—and this is on your watch, Labor. At 4.1 per cent, interest rates are currently the highest they've been since 2011. Families are hurting, and this government, sadly, is asleep at the wheel.

The impact of inflation and rising interest rates is being felt by businesses and families across Australia. Rising mortgage payments, rising prices at the checkout and rising energy bills are all eating away at already tight household budgets. This quarter alone, 150,000 people are moving from fixed rates to variable rates. We are facing a cliff here, and this government is not doing enough to address it. They're putting fuel on the fire. It cannot continue. This government is away at sea when it comes to addressing the fundamentals of our economy, particularly in the area of productivity. You don't ever hear the government talk about productivity. You never hear that word come from the Prime Minister's mouth, yet it's the single most important thing that needs to be addressed to address this cost-of-living crisis. You keep putting fuel on the fire by increasing government spending and you're not doing anything to address productivity, which we know would put downward pressure on inflation.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The claims that this government is doing nothing to address the cost-of-living challenge that Australians are facing are absolutely outrageous, so I welcome the opportunity to describe to you some of the measures that the government is putting in place—many of which have been opposed by those opposite—to help Australian families deal with the rising cost of living and the challenges that they faced from those opposite after 10 years of a do-nothing government. We are a government that is doing exactly what we said we would do. We are not only committed to reducing the cost of living; we have already taken action.

We're making medicines cheaper and we are strengthening Medicare. We cut the price of PBS scripts from the start of this year. Do you know what this could mean for the average family that might have two or three scripts? That's a saving of up to $450 a year. We've tripled the bulk-billing incentive, making the largest investment in this since Medicare began. This is just what is already happening. From 1 September, those medicines that can be prescribed for 60 days will save people up to $180 a year.

We know household bills are rising due to international inflation pressures—pressures that we're seeing around the world. That's why we've taken action. Our energy price caps are reducing wholesale electricity prices by up to 50 per cent. Over five million households and one million small businesses will receive targeted electricity bill rebates. We're supporting those families that are struggling with cost-of-living pressures. We've expanded paid parental leave to six months by 2026. We're investing in making early childhood education more affordable. Ninety-six per cent of families will be better off under these changes.

We're investing in the skills and training Australians need without the cost, delivering 480,000 fee-free TAFE places. As just one example, a Victorian early childhood education student can now save nearly $9,000 on their training. Importantly, we are getting wages moving again in this country. We supported the largest boost to award wages in a generation, an increase for roughly 2.7 million workers across the country. We've funded a 15 per cent wage increase for aged-care workers. Wages are growing under Labor at their highest level in over 10 years.

Of course, this is no coincidence. In the last decade, we saw a government that left people behind. Not only did they have no plan to address the cost of living; they seemed intent on raising it. The Australian people don't need reminding of what occurred under the former coalition government, but it sounds like those opposite do. Let's not forget that this was a government that wanted to charge a $7 GP tax. This was a government that tried to increase the cost of medicines by $5 and wanted to start charging for emergency department visits as well. Under the coalition, early childhood education costs rose by a staggering 49 per cent. In nearly a decade, there was no increase at all to the number of weeks of paid parental leave available to families. Just in case the memories of those opposite are selective, let me quote directly. The member for Farrer described fee-free TAFE as a 'waste of taxpayer dollars'. Those opposite described those low wages as a 'deliberate design feature' of their government's policy. And they of course opposed a $1 per hour increase to the minimum wage. They haven't learnt their lesson.

Since we've come to government, they've voted against $1.5 billion in energy bill relief. They've proposed allowing millions of Australians to buy two months worth of medicine for the price of a single prescription before the details were even announced. They've said no to more social and affordable housing, including for women and children fleeing family violence. Rather than moving motions to politically grandstand, how about those opposite actually support policies that will reduce the cost of living? We're working every day to make Australian lives better, delivering secure jobs, better wages and addressing the cost of living.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have to start with some myth busting again. Pretty much every time we talk about the cost of living in this place we have to start with some myth busting because those opposite can't help but roll out the mistruths that real wages grew under the last coalition government. It was a slow increase, I will knowledge, but a sustainable increase. Whereas, under this Labor government, they have plummeted in the face of high inflation. Real wages are declining, and every Australian who receives a pay packet knows it, because they know the cost of living is going up faster than their wages. They've seen their mortgage payments absolutely skyrocket in the last 12 months. They've seen the cost of their grocery bills absolutely skyrocket in the last 12 months. And, in this period of high inflation, yes, wages have gone up, but they haven't kept up with the cost of living. Real wages have gone backwards, and that's because we have a Labor government that doesn't have a clue about how to manage the economy.

When talking about cost-of-living pressures, they roll out a few things that they supposedly have done in this space. We hear about pharmaceuticals, yet the pharmacies out there are absolutely horrified by what this Labor government has done in the industry, and now we are seeing patient groups recognising the damage done by this Labor government in the pharmaceutical space, and they are coming out to oppose that policy as well. The Labor government trumpeted their childcare changes, yet most parents out there know that childcare costs and availability have gotten worse not better under this government. And they trumpeted what they've done in the energy space, whereas, in actual fact, all they have really done in the energy space is frighten away foreign investment, deter new energy suppliers coming into the market, particularly gas coming into the market. That will, over time, force up the cost of energy even more.

I ask you, if you're listening to this out there, to look at your energy bills over the past 14 months under this Labor government. They haven't come down, and you know they haven't come down. When the Labor Party stands up in this place and trumpets what it has supposedly done to bring down the pressure on energy prices, every Australian just has to look after their energy bill to know that that is a mistruth, and Australians will judge that harshly.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I very much appreciate the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance, and it is true that the government has not been able to address the cost of living. In fact, the government has increased the cost of living since its election some 15 months ago. That is most notable in relation to the cost of a mortgage, which, for many Australian families, is more than $1,000 extra a month. They're having to find that in what is already a high inflationary environment where the basics are more expensive than they were just a year ago.

The question is: what is it that the government can do here? Many people bring their grievances into these chambers, and it's not always clear to me what exactly they're asking the government itself to do. What actually is the government in control of? The government is in control of its fiscal policies. It can set its budget. It can run its affairs in relation to how it engages with the central bank, which runs monetary policy. On the issue of fiscal policy, that is where I think the government has gone wrong. They have made decisions in their two budgets to increase expenditure when economists and the experts have been calling for spending restraint. The government have decided to spend more money. Now that is, through the budget, causing inflation to increase. But the government has also been fond of establishing off-budget funds, which the International Monetary Fund has warned are increasing the risk of inflation in Australia. The reality is, here, that inflation is running higher in Australia than it is in many comparable countries, including the United States, because the Australian government has decided to run an expansionary fiscal policy. There's some debate about whether that is a neutral policy. The only reason it could credibly be regarded as a neutral stance is because of the hilarious energy caps, which is effectively the government legislating away inflation. If it was that easy, then you would just pass a law that says we're going to have no more inflation. The idea that that is the fiscal position of the country is laughable. That is one thing the government can control.

The other thing the government can control is the way it engages with the central bank. The government have decided to engage in a lot of 1990s style interference with the Reserve Bank by ending Philip Lowe's term. They spent a lot of time campaigning against Philip Lowe, sending their backbenchers out to attack Philip Lowe personally for doing his job. Then, of course, the axe fell on Mr Lowe. There was a public debate about whether the government would appoint a Treasury official or maybe someone from the unions, who knows, to run the Reserve Bank, which is reminiscent of the 1990s experience. We've seen two decades of independence, not interference, in terms of the Reserve Bank. The government have interfered massively here. They have now decided to appoint Michele Bullock, who I think will be a very fine governor, and I welcome her appointment.

But it's the way that you do things that counts. There was a bit of a try-on there for a while, a bit of a sense that maybe they were trying to cow or bully the Reserve Bank and punish them for doing their job, because, of course, the Reserve Bank in raising interest rates is doing the heavy lifting that the government has not been prepared to do. The government should be running a contractionary fiscal policy. That's what the government should be doing. I know it's hard to cut spending, but ultimately, the least you can do is not agree to new spending, which is where we are with this government and $42 billion in new expenditure taken in decisions in this budget estimates period. Ultimately, that is the position we are in. The government have decided to spend more money than they need to, and that is fuelling inflation. That is causing the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, and that is causing mortgage costs to be higher than they should be and certainly much higher than they have been under the Liberal Party. At the end of the day, Labor is playing to its true colours. It is making mortgages more expensive, and the cost of living is much harder.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the 2022 election campaign, the now Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, promised my Queensland constituents that life would be easier under Labor, a metaphorical land of milk and honey. I think the Prime Minister oversold his policies by a football field or two. Milk and honey have turned out to be baked beans on toast, except baked beans are up 50 per cent, so it's more bread and margarine. Except margarine is up 40 per cent, and supermarket bread is up from $1.90 a loaf to $2.70 a loaf. That loaf of bread is made from 98 per cent Australian ingredients purchased from Australian farmers on a long-term supply agreement. The government cannot blame the war in Ukraine for price rises on a product made here. I do, however, know where to place that blame. The Australia Institute has correctly pointed out that our supermarket oligopoly is exploiting their market share to rip off consumers for record profits. The government has not acted on supermarket or petrol profiteering, despite having the power to do so, and the ACCC is asleep at the wheel. Manufacturers' costs have increased, especially thanks to the UN 2050 net zero madness that started under the previous Liberal government and is now pursued enthusiastically by the champagne socialists on the left in the Labor party.

Closing down cheap base-load coal power and replacing it with unreliable and expensive wind and solar has forced up electricity prices along the entire supply chain. Farmers' cool rooms and packing sheds are costing more to light and to refrigerate. Warehouses are more expensive. Supermarket fridges are more expensive. One Nation know, because we listen around the country, that every problem in this country is due to excessive government, especially central government. We know the solutions are with the people. Set the people free from this UN rubbish and we'll get everything right.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're all very aware of the challenges in the economy across the world and right here at home. When we start talking about those challenges, we've got to listen to what those on the opposite side say about what it actually means for the fight ahead against some of those challenges and how we actually tackle them. But you've also got to put it in perspective because there was a perspective given by Peter Dutton last year about some of those same challenges where he was a lot more honest than he is being now. He spoke about the hard economic challenges in the times ahead. On Sunrise on 8 February 2022 he said:

… over the next couple of years … we are going to have headwinds economically, as you know.

He went on to say:

… we have to be again realistic about what's happening economically over the coming years.

That was on the Today show on 5 April 2022. He went on to say:

I think if you look at what's happening in the United States at the moment, where inflation's at seven per cent, a similar story in parts of Europe, I think we need to really be realistic about the economic risks on the horizon.

That was on Sky News on 24 April 2022.

Political opportunism is one thing, but then you start saying, 'What have they supported to make a difference on cost of living?' We know the difference they've made: they've made no difference, because every time a proposition has been put forward about dealing with the cost-of-living pressures on hardworking Australians and those doing it tough they've voted it down. We know that their strategy was always to have low wages. That was a deliberate design feature of those opposite. We know that the Liberal and National parties are for low wages. But who would have thought they'd oppose a dollar-per-hour increase in the minimum wage? Don't worry—they said that before the election and they've kept that tune after the election. When we started putting policies forward to give people the opportunity to deal with the cost-of-living pressures and looking at realistic and fair wage increases, they said no. What did Mr Dutton say? He said it was because it was going to increase wages. He said specifically, 'It's going to result in high wages if we support the secure jobs and better pay bill.' Again and again, they are always opposed. They said no to banning pay secrecy clauses and the efforts to close the gender pay gap. That's because, again, they don't want all those people on salaries to get better wages to deal with those challenges.

Let's look at some of the more detailed government policies we have put forward. There was a tripling of bulk-billing incentives from the Albanese government. There's been the largest investment in bulk-billing incentives ever to take some pressure off the cost of living. We're reducing the cost of medicines by up to half for at least six million people. Those opposite are the same people who wanted to charge a $7 GP tax. They tried to increase the cost of medicines by $5. They wanted to charge for emergency department visits. They were opposed to allowing millions of Australians to buy two months worth of medicine for the price of a single prescription before details were even announced. They refused to back patients. That's what the previous government did, and that's what they're doing in opposition. They're undermining the opportunity for people to be able to get by and deal with the cost-of-living challenges.

When you start dealing with the cost of living, one of the smart things you do is you also look at investment so that we can get productivity up. A smart area to do that, because of the dismal failure we've had for over a decade in productivity building capacity within our economy—what do we do? We turn around and come up with a great policy, a policy we took to the election, supported by the community, to have free TAFE. There are 480,000 fee-free TAFE places. Not only is it a cost-of-living exercise, it's also an exercise to make sure we get productivity. We invest in Australians.

What do they do? Sussan Ley, the deputy opposition leader, said fee-free TAFE is a waste of taxpayers money. They're against skills. They're against the minimum wage being increased. Don't get me onto housing, because they're against $10 billion being spent on some of the most disadvantaged people in our community. They're against energy controls. These people have no sense about what's in the interest of Australia.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too support this matter of public importance put forward by Senator O'Sullivan. The past 15 months under the Albanese government has been reminiscent of the movie Apocalypse Now. We've got Prime Minister Albanese, a bit like Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter Kurtz at the end, painting his face with the Voice and being distracted while his other colonel, Colonel Kilgore—Jim Chalmers—is out there saying he loves the smell of poverty in the morning. He loves the smell of homelessness. That's what we've had under the Albanese government, 15 months of sheer horror.

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

Sorry, Senator Rennick, I have Senator McAllister on her feet.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think senators understand that, firstly, we ought to refer to people in the other place by their correct titles and, secondly, we ought not reflect, and particularly reflect inaccurately in specific ways, on the motivations and attitudes of other senators. I do think Senator Rennick has transgressed both of those requirements.

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

I'll remind Senator Rennick of your request. Senator Rennick, you have the call.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry, Senator McAllister, I'm not quite sure what I was saying there. I was just throwing a bit of colour into the MPI this afternoon, a bit of alliteration and metaphor. I know you guys like to keep it all drib and drab, but we'll push back on the fact—

A government senator interjecting—

I know you don't like it, but the fact of the matter is Australians are doing it tough. They're doing it tough because the Albanese government have no idea of what they are doing. They are running a high immigration rate when we have got a rental crisis. At the same time, they're cutting back on infrastructure. Why would you cut back on infrastructure spending if you're having more people coming into the country? You would think you would need more dams. You would think you would need more reliable baseload energy.

A government senator interjecting—

No, no, no. What the Albanese government is doing is it's wasting money on renewable projects. It's wasting money on the Voice that is a complete and utter distraction from the real issues in this country, which is cost of living.

We've had a Prime Minister that has been out of the country probably more than any other Prime Minister in history. He's been running around, gallivanting around the world big-noting himself with the globalists instead of dealing with the hardship here. Hardship brought about by a government that is effectively, through high immigration, high interest rates—they haven't actually expanded the volume of money in the system, which is what the 1937 banking royal commission said that we should do to control supply. No, no, no. They're not dealing with any supply-side issues whatsoever. All they are doing—actually, I'll take that back. They are. They're restricting supply by cutting back on infrastructure.

I know that those on the other side mightn't like to hear that, but the fact of the matter is they don't have any answers. What they want to do, rather than deal with and provide solutions to the problems that they've created, is to distract us with things like the Voice, which is going to be a complete and utter waste of time. We don't even know what the date of the Voice is. I wish you guys would get on with it, because the sooner we can get rid of the Voice and get that over and done with, the sooner we can move on to the real issue, which is the cost of living.

Prime Minister Albanese still hasn't been able to explain to the Australian people why before the election he said he would cut energy prices by $275. Has he done that? No, he has not done that. Energy prices went up by $700 by June 30 this year, and then the energy companies have come out and said they're going to increase power prices by another 30 per cent. Why is that? I'll tell you why that is. That is because of the obsession of the Labor Party and their friends in the Greens with unreliable and unrecyclable energy—otherwise known as renewables, but that's actually a misnomer. As we've seen recently, we've got these wind turbines stuck in the forests of North Queensland. They want to build more of these wind turbines. They're going to destroy our environment. They're going to destroy people's disposable income.

Then we've got this whole issue where we can't get people into houses. We cannot build enough houses in this country. And what's Labor's solution to this? They are going to continue to increase superannuation—to lift that superannuation levy to 12 per cent by 2025. I'm calling on the Labor Party to actually cut superannuation. Cut it back to six per cent, or, if you like, you can split it in half now: five per cent optional, five per cent compulsory. Will you do that? That will let people keep a little bit more of their hard-earned wages. We know Labor loves to steal wages. Superannuation is wage theft: it takes money from the battlers and gives it to the elites in their ivory towers in Sydney and Melbourne, and that's not on. So, Senator McAllister, if you want to get all picky and choosy about my reflections, I suggest you forget that. It's merely a deflection. You need to get on and focus on the cost of living. (Time expired)

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

The time for this discussion has expired.