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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

In particular, I rise to take note of the answer to the first question. The issue of cost of living, we know, is the single biggest issue that Australians are facing right now. Anyone who is spending any time in the community engaging with people knows that people are hurting significantly. We know that rises in interest rates have been decided on by the Reserve Bank. Twelve times since this government has been elected, the Reserve Bank have had to make the decision to require Australian households to do the heavy lifting in the economy to reduce inflation, because this government is not doing its job of leading and directing the programs and processes to ensure that we've got reduced pressure on inflation, and it's leaving it up to households.

We know that households across Australia are having a very difficult time making ends meet. Mortgages have gone up. If you're on a $750,000 mortgage, which in some states seems to be about the average—it's higher than what it would be in my home state of Western Australia, where it's about $500,000—your mortgage repayments have gone up $24,000 since interest rates started to rise. Where do you find that sort of money if you're on an average salary? It's phenomenal.

The problem that we have is that this government is not doing anything to address it. In fact, not only do they have no plan to address the cost of living, but the plans that they have put in place are actually adding fuel to inflation. The government come in here and say that they are doing things to address this, and they rattle off their programs, like the energy support and cheaper child care.

I just want to address one thing here while we're talking about cheaper child care. I'll just draw your attention, Mr Deputy President, to Senator Wong, who, in answers to questions today, actually misled the Senate when she said that the coalition did not support cheaper child care. I refer you back to the record. We supported the cheaper childcare bill in this place. We supported that legislation. We were critical of the fact that all that would happen was that the increase in subsidies would be swallowed up by an increase in charges by service providers, and, lo and behold, that is exactly what has happened. If you ask a family, 'Are you paying more today for child care than what you were paying before?' the answer, of course, is yes.

Senator Wong is not the only one. Senator Chisholm in estimates said the same thing—that the coalition didn't support the cheaper childcare plan. That is misleading. I know Senator Wong is here right now; I would encourage her to go and check what she said on Hansard today and come back in here and explain to the Senate whether or not she has misled the Senate, because I believe that she has. I don't make these sorts of accusations lightly. That's the truth, as far as I understand it. I remember because I ran the inquiry for the coalition into the cheaper childcare bill, and we supported it. You can check the report that the opposition provided in support of that bill. We were critical of it, as I've pointed out, absolutely.

It's just like the other measures. They said that electricity prices were going to be cheaper for Australians. They said it over 90 times throughout the election campaign. They said that they were going to be $275 cheaper, yet we know that the cost of electricity has gone up anywhere from 15 to 20 per cent for some people. So you can't say that your measures are actually helping to reduce cost-of-living pressures when, in fact, the cost of living is still going up. I mean, it's just evident. Anyone that is paying their bills, booking a flight, paying their mortgage, paying for their electricity or going and doing their grocery shopping can see that we are paying more. And, sadly, this government is asleep at the wheel, the Treasurer is at sea when it comes to managing the economy, and Australians are hurting because of it.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate as well. I think it's very important that we get all the facts out and get the truth out. For someone who's spent a lifetime not only fighting for my mates but fighting for my members in the TWU for all those years, every time the cost of living moves, absolutely, it hurts us. But let's not forget that this opposition over here, when in government, was the government who made it a deliberate plan of their time in government to suppress wage growth—to keep wage growth low. The former senator Mathias Cormann, who was Minister for Finance at the time, actually said it. He didn't hide that. He came out and said it—to keep wages low.

I tell you what, if we don't keep wages moving, every time we have a cost-of-living crisis, it will get worse and worse, the knock-on effect, so we just have to get the truth out there. We now have a tranche of industrial relations reform, closing the loopholes, in front of the Senate now. We know what side of that the Lib-Nats sit. They totally oppose any opportunity to get the wages moving in this country. None of them will look at me and argue. They'll all keep looking down. We know that for a fact because they're on the side of the baddies. They're on the side of the chamber of commerce, the Minerals Council of Australia, COSBOA—I don't think they even represent any small business—the National Farmers Federation. Do I have to say any more? We are trying to outlaw wage theft. What we've clearly said is if an employee steals from the boss then the employee should be sacked. Make no mistake about that. We don't hide that. It is a crime. But this mob opposite, when an employer deliberately steals from an employee, they support it. They're opposing our bill to criminalise wage theft. Here they all are, looking down at their desks, not arguing with me, not trying to interject or get me to retract.

Earlier this year we put through our first tranche of industrial relations reform. It was called Secure Jobs, Better Pay because we want people not to be working 40, 50, 60 hours a week casually when they don't want to be casual. Let me put this out there as an ex-union organiser for the Transport Workers' Union, an ex-truck driver: some people like to be part-time and some people like to be casual. We understand that. It's not for us to say they can't. But there are a heck of a lot of people who are working massive hours—day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out, month-in, months-out—who would love nothing better than a permanent rate of pay. All of you in the chamber and up in the gallery know this: it doesn't matter how much you earn, you can't go to the bank and say, 'Look at all this money I'm earning. I'm only casual but I'd love to buy a home.' You cannot buy a home if you don't have a permanent job. Sorry, I'll rephrase that. You can't get a loan.

This same mob opposite will gingerly keep their heads down—I don't know what they're checking out, maybe the real estate markets for their holiday homes—will not take the argument up with me and will then try and condemn us to get the nation moving. We're the first party in here to say we want to share the common wealth. We want employers to be bouyant, because when employers are buoyant, they pass it on down the chain to their employees. It is this side of the parliamentary chamber that understands how to keep good relationships going out there in the industrial relations scene—happy workers, happy bosses.

But you have those massive corporations—the majority of them from America—squeezing the living daylights out of our supply chains while they're protected, unfortunately, by that side of parliament, opposing us, opposing our every opportunity to get this great nation moving and going forward together. We should never, ever be embarrassed to say, 'Australia is a wonderful place to live. Australia is a wonderful place to bring up your children.' We do enjoy, over the years, a good wage. When we have a good wage, guess what we do with it? We spend. The first thing we do is we buy more things or we go out more often or we spend it on our kids and spoil them as much as we can. Is that a sin, I ask Australia? Is that a sin? I don't want to live in South-East Asia on a suppressed wage but my bowl of food only costs 80 cents. No, thank you. I live in Australia. I want to keep Australian wages and conditions moving. Ask the question to that side of the chamber: Why did they oppose every opportunity we have to increase wages in this nation?

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just remind you that senators are entitled to sit at their desks and work as they please, and to restrain future commentary on what they're up to unless it's in breach of standing orders, and to let me know.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In making his bid to be Prime Minister at last year's election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that he had a plan, a plan that would make Australians better off, a plan that would make Australia wealthier. But, 17 months later, Labor's economic plans are hurting Australia and hurting Australian families.

Labor's plan for immigration has just made things worse. Unmodelled record immigration with 500,000 new people in just 12 months has placed direct inflationary pressure on housing. In Perth, in my home state of Western Australia, the average price of a rental unit has increased by $125 or 29 per cent since Labor's election in May last year. Labor's plan for infrastructure is only making things worse. In the nine months to April this year more than 1,700 construction companies have collapsed. The number of loans issued for the purchase of construction of new homes is at its lowest since 2008. Yet Labor's $80 billion infrastructure binge is choking housing investment and increasing the cost of labour and materials. And Labor's plan for energy is only making things worse. Since May 2022 gas has increased by 28 per cent and electricity has increased by 18 per cent. Still, Labor has allowed the Scarborough and Barossa gas projects, combined worth more than $20 billion to the Australian economy, to be tied up in the courts. Without reform, gas from these essential projects will remain buried beneath the ocean while Australian homes and businesses suffer with high energy prices. Labor's plan for industrial relations is just making things worse. Labor's proposed industrial relations legislation, by including road transport in labour laws and stripping powers from the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, will cripple proudly independent truck drivers and increase transport costs. It will serve no-one beyond the Australian Workers Union. Labor's plan is just making things worse.

Labor's economic plan is hurting Australia and it's hurting Australian families. And every time the RBA is forced to raise interest rates, that is a fail. That is a fail for the Australian Labor Party and this Labor government. Interest rate rises are the RBA saying 'fail' on the economic performance and economic plan of this Labor government. The RBA's decision earlier this week to raise interest rates again—the 12th time while Labor has been in government—to 4.35 per cent is hurting people. And think of that: interest rate rise No. 1, on interest rate rise No. 2, on interest rate rise No. 3, to 12 interest rate rises. And where is that pain being felt the most? It's being felt the most by first home buyers living in our suburbs on the outskirts of our cities, the very same people who trusted Anthony Albanese, the then-opposition leader, when he said while bidding for the prime ministership and running his election campaign, that he would make things better, easier for Australian families. Those very same people who trusted Labor in May last year are bearing the brunt of Labor's poor economic management.

The RBA is independent, and it is making an independent judgement, an independent assessment, on whether or not this government's plan is working. But whether it's immigration or infrastructure or industrial relations or indeed energy, everything in Labor's plan is just making things worse. Think about that for a moment. We're not three years into this government, we're not four years into this government, it's been just 17 months. Just 17 month, and things have got significantly harder, more difficult for Australian families. The Prime Minister now, 17 months later, says that he is concerned. It's a little bit too late because people are hurting. (Time expired)

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've been listening with interest to the way senators have sought to frame this debate, and they've sought to frame it in a way that suggests there is a difference in the recognition of the significant cost-of-living pressures that are being experienced by Australians at the moment.

And there isn't. We absolutely acknowledge that people in our community are doing it really tough right now—that the cost-of-living pressures on Australians are hitting hard, that their family budgets are getting tighter and that Australians are paying more for things that they can't live without. People are hurting—people in our communities are hurting. The fact is that things like the independent Reserve Bank's decision to increase interest rates do hurt and inflation does hurt. Both these things have been on the rise for some time; they didn't start under this government, they started when the opposition was in government. They're hurting people, and we absolutely acknowledge that these pressures are real and that they're being made worse by events overseas, including the conflict unfolding in the Middle East and the conflict in Ukraine, and the pressures on global energy markets. These things are all adding to inflationary pressures in our economy.

That's exactly why our No. 1 focus as a government has been on addressing the cost of living, but seeking to do so in a way which doesn't add further to the inflationary pressures which already exist in our economy. Our cost-of-living package is $23 billion of various cost-of-living relief measures. To say that the government is doing nothing here is just abjectly false. We have a $23 billion plan for cost-of-living relief, and many of the measures within it the opposition didn't even vote for. On energy relief: we came back to the parliament last year, urgently seeking to do something to provide energy price relief for Australians and the opposition didn't vote for it. We brought the Housing Australia Future Fund in here, to build tens of thousands of affordable homes for Australians—including Australian families where there are individuals fleeing domestic violence and including houses for emergency service workers—and they voted against that package, which will provide much-needed, affordable housing for Australians doing it tough. They voted against cheaper medicines. That's a significant policy to take one of the most significant costs off some Australians—to lower those costs and, again, to do it in a way which doesn't add to the inflationary pressures already existing within our economy and, indeed, existing within the global economy. They voted against that one too—they voted against cheaper medicines too.

Our plan is extensive and it covers a range of things in our economy—things like cheaper child care. If you have young children, the cost of child care can be a huge part of your family budget. We've made substantial investments to relieve that pressure so that children still have access to that incredible early-learning environment, but in a way which makes it easier for families. We're funding fee-free TAFE training all across our country, including significant places in South Australia. We're extending Paid Parental Leave and we're creating jobs. We've created over 500,000 jobs since we've come to this place. But we don't just want to see more jobs, we want to see good jobs. We want wages to get moving again; we supported an increase to the minimum wage and we're funding an increase for aged-care workers to get their wages moving significantly.

We've delivered the first surplus in 15 years. That's the goal those opposite held up more than anything else during their time in government. They loved it so much, they got the mugs printed! That's how much it meant to them. We've delivered that surplus. It's a $23 billion cost-of-living relief package, and we're doing it because we see and understand the pressures which Australians are feeling right now. Cost-of-living relief is our No. 1 priority, and to frame this debate in any other way is misleading and it is false.

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the week that the government finally admitted that they've had it wrong for months now and have to take some of the blame for the extra mortgage pain we've seen unleashed on Australian families by the Reserve Bank this week.

I say that because it was this week that Jim Chalmers fronted the media and finally revealed that he might actually have to do something about government spending to help with the fight against inflation. Indeed, the Financial Review reported a few days ago that Treasurer Jim Chalmers concedes the government will have to cut back on some infrastructure projects to help in the fight against inflation. Mr Chalmers was quoted on the ABC's Insiders program as saying:

I do think we're going to need to make some difficult decisions about the infrastructure pipeline, which factors in those $33 billion of blowouts from …

Blah, blah, blah. Here we have a situation where the government announced a budget six months ago in which they massively boosted government spending, which has fuelled inflation, which has therefore caused the Reserve Bank to have to act this week to increase interest rates. Now, finally, six months later, we've got this concession saying, 'Maybe we should have controlled spending.' Why didn't the Treasurer do that six months ago? He had the opportunity to do something to help Australians struggling with inflation when he put his budget plan together. He could have done something to help reduce the heat in the economy. This was an issue a year ago. This was an issue six months ago. It's now an issue that's even worse today because the government has been sitting on their hands doing nothing. They've done absolutely nothing. In fact, I shouldn't say that. I'll take that back. They have been spending your money and adding fuel to the inflation fire.

Six months ago, in their budget, they increased government spending through their own decisions. These were explicit policy decisions that the government made. They increased government spending by $22 billion. That's in their own budget. There's a table towards the back of the budget which shows what the impact of government policy decisions were in that budget. In that budget, six months ago, the government increased spending of your money by $22 billion. How does that figure compare to other budgets? In fact, you have to go all the way back to the Kevin Rudd era, if you don't count the COVID years. Obviously, the COVID years were a little bit different. If you don't count the COVID years, you have to go all the way back to Kevin Rudd to find a bigger-spending budget than this one six months ago. At least Kevin Rudd had the excuse of the global financial crisis. He had a global recession that was ruling the world at the time. His Treasury secretary told him to go hard and go early or go home, so to speak. Because of that, he unleashed a lot of government spending. We can debate whether that was the right approach, too, but at least he had that excuse. Mr Chalmers used to work for Kevin Rudd. He might be addicted to this approach.

This time, Mr Chalmers had an economy that was overheating. He had an inflation rate that was over seven per cent last year, and he decided to deliver a budget which massively expanded government spending. That is the record. That is what this government did. The consequence of the mistakes the government made in their budget six months ago is that Australians are now paying more on their mortgages. More Australians are in mortgage stress. It's a record number for over a decade, with 1½ million Australians now paying more than 30 per cent of their income on their mortgage repayments. They're in a lot of stress. They're doing it tough. And the government has been sitting back and doing nothing to help.

You can go back and check the record: for the last six months—or the last year, really—I've been calling on the government to cut back spending to take the heat out of the economy. I said it in the budget week; I've been saying it for the last year. But the government has ignored those calls. Finally—belatedly, it seems—they might be trying to do something about it. But, unfortunately, the train has already left the station. It's going to be much harder to stop inflation now that the genie's out of the bottle. That's because, now, the Reserve Bank is warning that inflation is affecting services. It's not just Ukraine or the Middle East. These are just excuses from this government that has failed Australians over the past year. We now have a broader inflation problem because the government didn't have the courage to deal with the situation when it first emerged a year or so ago. Now, hopefully, the government will actually act. As I say, unfortunately, it will mean Australians pay more on their mortgages. They have to lift up. They have to tighten their belts because the government wouldn't tighten its belt. We'll see what the Australian people think about that come the next election. But we desperately need a government now which will tackle these issues, stop with the talking points, stop making excuses and do its job as a government.

Question agreed to.