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

I return to this place from my home state of Western Australia having spent many, many hours out in the community, at the recent Diwali festival at Langley Park, talking to businesses in rural Western Australia and talking to families across the metropolitan area. One word that I think summarises all those conversations is 'pressure'. Families and small business are under an extraordinary amount of pressure at the moment. They've seen their mortgage interest rates skyrocket. They've seen the cost of their business loans skyrocket. They've seen the cost of the inputs to their business skyrocket. They've seen the cost of their groceries, petrol and electricity all going up and up. Meanwhile, real wages are going down and down. We see it now, sadly, playing out in businesses going into administration; 7,942 Australian companies entered administration, according to the latest statistics for the last financial year. So far, the 2023 year is seeing a year-on-year increase of another 21.5 per cent of businesses going into administration. The government's own authority, the Australian Financial Security Authority, expects 14,000 personal insolvencies in the next year. That's 14,000 personal insolvencies in one year. Australians are under pressure, Western Australians are under pressure and the Labor government is asleep at the wheel.