Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that I have received the following letter under standing order 75, dated 14 November 2023, from Senator Babet:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the United Australia Party propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

Since the 2022 election, the Albanese Labor government has committed billions in spending, which contributes to inflationary pressure and drives up interest rates. Tradies are in short supply, reducing the amount of houses that can be built.

Almost half of Australian mortgage holders are now in mortgage stress. The government must reduce spending and cancel or delay unnecessary and wasteful projects, such as Snowy 2.0, to temper inflation, build more houses and reduce mortgage stress."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators 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.

Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

Since the 2022 election, the Albanese Labor government has committed billions in spending, which contributes to inflationary pressure and drives up interest rates. Tradies are in short supply, reducing the amount of houses that can be built.

Almost half of Australian mortgage holders are now in mortgage stress. The government must reduce spending and cancel or delay unnecessary and wasteful projects, such as Snowy 2.0, to temper inflation, build more houses and reduce mortgage stress.

I rise today to speak up for the millions of Australians who are struggling to make ends meet. We've seen 13 consecutive interest rate rises, and the government continues to, in my opinion, shirk responsibility. They blame everything from the war in Ukraine to the COVID pandemic while hardworking Australians are on struggle street.

Over just 18 months, the cost of servicing a median Victorian mortgage has increased by—guess how much—$18,000 a year. How many families have a lazy 18 grand lying around just to keep a roof over their heads? That's nearly 350 bucks every single week. It is no wonder that the lines at the food bank are unfortunately growing. Minimum loan repayments have increased from 30 per cent, approximately, to a staggering 50 per cent of the average Victorian wage. Half of their money is being spent to pay off the mortgage—absolutely massive. The number of Victorian calls to the National Debt Helpline is up 40 per cent just this year. Many hardworking Aussies face the prospect of losing their home or never reaching that great Aussie dream of homeownership. Taxes, the mortgage, rent, power bills and groceries are robbing Australians of their hard-earned wages.

At a time when Australian workers are struggling, the Labor Party now wants to hit them while they are down. The closing loopholes IR bill proposes what is effectively wage theft. Hardworking Australian casual employees will be forced to become full-time or part-time employees, losing their flexibility and a generous 25 per cent casual loading. Employers will face hefty fines for employing a casual in a way that does not fit this new definition. The data shows that casual employees can earn around six per cent more than full-time or part-time employees when all entitlements are taken into consideration. A six per cent pay cut for many a casual employee is a bitter pill to swallow. If the Labor Party is successful with this bill, the financial loss on the average pay could be more than five grand a year. One can only assume that the Labor Party—backed by their union mates, obviously—is determined to destroy casual employment and help to undermine the small-business sector.

When it comes to inflation drivers, there is a massive elephant in the room, and that elephant is Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the Labor Party and, obviously, the big spending budgets. Mortgage holders are being unfairly punished for inflationary pressure, but the government itself is contributing to it, and it needs to stop. The flames of inflation are being fanned by higher levels of immigration and massive government spending on wasteful and unneeded infrastructure projects. People are having to cut back on essentials and work a second job just to afford a roof over their head. Meanwhile, the government continues to spend like a drunken sailor.

Last week the International Monetary Fund warned that Australian mortgage holders will suffer even more pain if federal and state governments don't wind back their own reckless spending. Snowy Hydro 2.0's budget has blown out sixfold to $12 billion at last count, and the government wants mums and dads with mortgages to pay for this mismanagement. If the government are serious about getting inflation under control, they need to tighten their belts and stop pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money into the economy.

If the government did cut some of their inflation-producing multibillion dollar projects, do you know what would happen? Tradesmen would suddenly become available to build houses. That's what would happen. It's almost like the government could make headway on two of the greatest challenges faced by our nation—inflation and the housing crisis—if the government did this and just made some hard decisions about their own behaviour. Australians are, unfortunately, sick to the back teeth of hearing Treasurer Jim Chalmers blame the previous government for his own economic woes.

Obviously, we all—well, most of us here in this place—would like to see the government urgently cancel or delay unnecessary projects so that inflation can be brought back under control and so that Australian householders can finally get some interest rate relief. During the election campaign they told us that it wouldn't be easy under Prime Minister Albanese. In time, it seems like they have potentially been proven to be right.

Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's great to be here to speak on this urgency motion raised by Senator Babet, and I thank him for raising it. While we will agree about the importance of addressing the cost of living and not adding to inflation, we oppose this motion because our approach on these matters is responsible and measured. That's right: responsible and measured.

The Albanese government is working for Australia every day. We know Australians are doing it tough. World events outside of our control have caused real challenges, but Labor doesn't shy away from the challenges. Our approach has been to ease the pressure through targeted cost-of-living relief without adding to inflation. When it comes to responsible financial management—as the motion states—to temper inflation, this is also something the Albanese government is firmly committed to. When we were elected in 2022, we inherited a budget in deep structural deficit. We all remember being more than a trillion dollars in debt with nothing to show for it, absolutely nothing. That is the legacy of the former Liberal-National government. In contrast, Labor's approach to fiscal management has been disciplined and prudent. Yes, you heard it: disciplined and prudent.

We want to improve the quality of the government's spending, ensure taxpayers' money is spent effectively and steer the economy away from inflation. We returned 87 per cent of revenue upgrades across two budgets, an important redirection from the previous government's dismal 40 per cent average. This isn't just talk. A total of $17.8 billion—yes, that's with a 'B'—of spending in the May budget will be redirected towards high-priority government initiatives, in addition to the $22 billion in savings from the October budget.

The Albanese government received strong endorsements from international ratings agency Fitch, who reaffirmed our AAA credit rating. Fitch's statement aligns with the IMF's backing, with both recognising our efforts in addressing inflation. Australia is one of only nine countries to be rated AAA by all three major credit-rating agencies, and this was achieved for the first time under the last Labor government.

Our strategy of budget restraint, economic capacity investments and targeted cost-of-living relief is easing inflationary pressures. The most recent CPI proves that our 10-point plan is working. The ABS data shows that without the government's policies for child care, electricity and rent the CPI would have been around half of a percentage point higher throughout the year. Our primary focus is rolling out cost-of-living assistance, which, as I've just highlighted, is directly easing inflation. The ABS statistics disprove the premise of this motion. The government can walk and chew gum at the same time, and we have a responsibility to ease the pressure on Australian families where we can.

I know that one of the biggest challenges facing Australians right now is housing. Whether they're mortgage holders or renters, interest rate rises have put a lot of pressure on families. The Albanese government has put in place short-, medium- and long-term plans to address the challenges we're facing. With the passing of the Housing Australia Future Fund legislation, we are delivering the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. The $10 billion fund will create a secure and ongoing pipeline of funding for social and affordable rental housing, fulfilling the commitment the government made to the Australian people. We are working with states and territories on this issue, and I'm really proud of what this government is doing to turn the tide, despite the many roadblocks raised by those opposite. In my home state of Western Australia, in particular, the Cook government has recently announced even more steps to address the housing crisis.

Before I wrap up, this month we've tripled the bulk-billing incentive to support 11.6 million Australians, including children, pensioners and other concession card holders, because we know that there is much work to do to continue easing the pressure on Australians, and we're getting on with the job.

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

The government put down its fiscal strategy in May in the budget, and this fiscal strategy has not even lasted until the first sightings of Santa Clauses in our shopping centres. I haven't seen Santa yet this year. I'm sure it will happen very soon. In the last few weeks, the whole government's fiscal strategy has been rubbish and in tatters, because the Treasurer and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government have been out there admitting that their spending is causing inflationary pressures. They have announced that they want to cut or slash infrastructure spending, specifically, to take the pressure off inflation.

The question has to be asked: why didn't the government do this six months ago when it delivered its budget? Why didn't they get ahead of the game and cut spending back then so that they could help Australian families take the pressure off inflation and also help the Reserve Bank so that it didn't have to raise interest rates 13 times. Twelve of those 13 have happened while this government has been in charge. It did nothing in the budget. Despite what you will hear in this debate from government senators, the facts do not lie. In their own budget in May, on page 94 of Budget Paper No. 1, there is a very helpful table. It's buried, though. You've got to go looking for it. It outlines the effect of government policy decisions on the budget. The government will claim it delivered a surplus. They only really delivered a surplus thanks to the mining industry—all the coal, iron ore and gas coming in. It was nothing they did specifically. What they did can be seen in the line in this table which says, 'Effect of policy decisions.' That table shows that the effect of policy decisions from the government's budget was to deteriorate the budget in net terms, to have net spending of $20.5 billion. They added $20 billion of fuel to the inflation fires already raging through this country. That is in their own table in their own budget.

How much and how big is a $20 billion injection in a budget? If you take out the COVID years—obviously, COVID was different and hundreds of billions of dollars were injected in those years because we shut down the country—this is the biggest increase, the biggest injection, the biggest fiscal expansion of any government since Kevin Rudd's response to the global financial crisis. So that's for 15 years. The government is going around saying, 'We delivered a surplus.' No, your decisions added $20½ billion to the economy, which was the biggest non-COVID increase in fiscal expansion since Kevin Rudd's days.

At least Kevin Rudd had a global financial crisis to respond to. He was responding to a global recession. While he overegged it a bit, in hindsight, the direction was right. At that time, fiscal expansion was needed to help support the economy and avoid recession, avoid a further contraction. The environment right now is the direct opposite. There is global inflation, not a global recession. We had to try to take the fire out of that inflation—or we should have—in the budget six months ago, but, instead, the government added $20½ billion to it. Now, belatedly, they're admitting that they're spending too much. Senator Babet's motion is exactly right. It should have been done six months ago. Now we're playing catch-up, thanks to this government, and the people paying for that catch-up are those, especially mortgage holders, who are paying thousands and thousands of dollars more a month. In my home state of Queensland, the average mortgage holder is paying $1,200 more a month because of these interest rate increases. How are people affording this? It is unbelievable.

The other problem we've got here is that inflation hasn't fallen, as the government expected. It hasn't fallen in line with the budget forecast. The RBA the other week had to revise its inflation forecast up. So the government's plans are not working. Everything you'll hear from government senators in this debate will be about how they're providing assistance through bulk-billing relief, PBS changes or childcare support. All of those policies were announced at the election last year. They were announced before inflation got worse over the past few months. So the question Australians have to ask is: why aren't you doing more now? Why aren't you providing more cost-of-living relief, given the consequences of your actions, which have helped fuel inflation and make it even harder for Australians than it was predicted to be over 18 months ago when all these cost-of-living policies of the Labor Party were designed?

The Labor Party are finally playing catch-up on the spending side—or they say they're going to; we haven't seen real action yet—but they're yet to play catch-up on cost-of-living relief. There should be more cost-of-living relief. If the government are going to cut infrastructure funding, why can't they cut fuel taxes? We're paying 48.8c a litre in fuel excise. It should go into funding roads, but the government aren't going to do that anymore. They're not going to fund your roads, so why are you paying almost 50c a litre at the bowser? Give us a fuel tax cut and some cost-of-living relief. We're getting nothing from this government right now.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, what a contribution, in trying to blame everyone else and take no responsibility for being in government for almost a decade, where you did absolutely nothing except to triple the country's debt. That's what you did. Our deficit tripled over your time. You took no economic action to ensure that we were protected from any global economic shocks. You did nothing about that at all.

We had the contribution from the previous speaker, who was critical because, they said, we're spending too much money. On the one hand, they say we're spending too much money; on the other hand, they say we're not spending enough. Then they criticise us by saying—it's their new mantra this week—the government are full of broken promises. We just got criticised for not delivering on our election commitments. We in the Labor government, under Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister, have actually delivered on the election commitments we made to the Australian people, and we're not going to apologise for that—not today, not ever—because we believe in delivering on our commitments.

We've got to remember that they had nine years. What did they do to protect the Australian economy? Did they invest in skills? No. Did they invest in manufacturing? No. What have they done since they've been in opposition? They've opposed every strategy and piece of legislation to help Australian families. We know and understand, because we're out there talking to Australians, that they're doing it tough out there. Do we wish that inflation was lower and coming down? Yes, we do. But what we also know is that we have got the right policies in place.

Those opposite talk about mortgages and mortgage interest rates going up. Yes, they have. No-one is denying that. Why are interest rates going up? Because of the Reserve Bank of Australia, who are independent. Let's not forget that while the Liberals, who are now here moaning in the background, were in government interest rates had already started to go up. We are not responsible for international events, things which are happening globally, and inflation has impacted globally. But all of a sudden they think that we can just wave our magic wand and everything is going to be A-OK because we want it to be.

We are taking sensible decisions based on the best interests of Australians. We are delivering on our commitments. And we are mocked because we have actually reduced the cost of medication. We're mocked because we've actually delivered on child care. We've supported childcare workers to get an increase in their pay. We've supported aged-care workers to get an increase in their pay because of the work that they're doing. We have a policy of wanting to see Australian workers getting paid more. At the same time, it was a deliberate policy of the former Liberal governments to keep wages down. But they want to come in here now and try and rewrite history. What they won't tell you is that last week the international rating agency Fitch reaffirmed Australia's AAA credit rating, describing our fiscal stance as 'supportive of reducing inflation'. That's not us saying that; that is the international rating agency who are saying that.

We know inflation is moderating in our economy, and we would like to see it moderate more quickly and go down. We welcome that progress, but we have to be realistic that that is not going to change overnight. But, if they were still in government, it would be no better. In fact it would be worse, because they have never supported wage growth in this country for Australian workers.

This month we have tripled the bulk-billing incentives, giving support to 11.6 million eligible Australians—including children, pensioners and concession card holders—to access a GP with no out-of-pocket expense. At the same time, we've introduced our urgent care clinics. Over 60,000 people have already accessed those clinics. (Time expired)

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens do support some of the points raised by Senator Babet in his urgency motion—such as, for example, the need for government to build more houses. However, we do not support this motion, primarily because we cannot support the proposition that the government should cut spending while so many people in our communities are struggling to cope with the escalating cost-of-living crisis. The latest Rental affordability index report shows that renters in every capital city around the country are in a worse position now than they were before the pandemic, and rental affordability right around the country is continuing to worsen. Food insecurity is increasing across the country. A recent report released by Foodbank Australia showed that as many as 3.7 million Australian households have been struggling with food insecurity in the last year. More and more people are having to decide between keeping a roof over their head or putting a decent meal on the table for their family.

So, instead of cutting spending, the government should be supporting people who are doing it tough right now, and they could do that in a range of ways—for example, by putting mental and dental health into Medicare; capping rent increases; increasing income support; making early childhood education and child care more affordable; and wiping student debt. Those are some of the things the government could and should be doing in order to help people get through a cost-of-living crisis. When people in our communities are struggling, it is not the time to reduce government spending; it is time to invest in providing genuine cost-of-living support.

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

As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, I agree with Senator Babet that the government's spending is wrongheaded and is causing more harm than good. The Albanese government's announcement this week to cut back on real infrastructure spending to make way for nonsensical net zero spending is counterintuitive, a wrecking ball for future generations. Taxpayers have already paid for the national electricity grid through their tax payments and through their electricity bills. Taxpayers have already built beautiful, cost-effective baseload coalfired power stations and the associated poles and wires.

Instead of using the annual share of the budget that goes to infrastructure to build something new and useful, the Albanese government is tearing down what has already been built and building it again—and, much like this Prime Minister, building it with something that is not fit for purpose. Wind and solar are the most unreliable and expensive forms of power, once everything is factored in, including transmission lines. Wind turbines last for 15 years and solar installations about the same. All the nature-dependent power installed under this and previous governments has to be replaced before we get to 2050 and then replaced again and again every 15 years after that—again and again and again: insanity, a permanent black hole that benefits nobody except the predatory, parasitic billionaires who pull this government's strings.

Speaking of fit for purpose, Snowy Hydro 2.0 has proved that city bankers like Malcolm Turnbull are crap at picking infrastructure projects. To continue throwing good money after bad with this failure will come at the opportunity cost of funding sensible infrastructure projects like Big Buffalo dam and hydro, Hells Gates Dam, Koombooloomba hydro, Urannah Water Precinct, Emu Swamp and South East Flows Restoration. These are all worthwhile infrastructure projects that One Nation will build. And inland rail to the Port of Gladstone, the east-west rail line and a steel park at Abbot Point are projects One Nation will continue to push and support and build.

Then there are the road projects, schools, rural hospitals and so much more that this government is shelving so it can waste money on the UN's net zero fairytales—nightmares. Weather-dependent generation needs batteries to back it up—more expense. The environmental destruction is finally getting attention, after scars have already been cut across national parks all over this beautiful country. Each gigawatt of coalfired power has to be replaced with five gigawatts of wind or solar. No amount of solar will provide power at night without expensive batteries that are dirty to manufacture and last an even shorter time than the solar panels they so positively affirm.

The net zero alliance puts the cost of 100 renewables with no blackouts by 2050 at $1.5 trillion—260 gigawatts of installed capacity to replace 60 gigawatts of coal. No wonder the infrastructure minister, Minister King, announced that the Albanese government would require state governments to pay for at least half of any infrastructure project in their state. And new infrastructure projects must be over $500 million before the federal government will fund their half. That will leave the states to pay for most infrastructure projects entirely. That's Victoria done for, with all the debt Labor Premier Andrews left behind.

What next, a state levy to pay for infrastructure that the federal government should rightly be paying for now? This is socialists taxing the life out of the public. Australia already ranks 57th out of 62 of the largest economies for income tax levels, with first being the lowest tax rate, and 56th for company tax. We're nearly the highest. Foreign corporations, of course, are not included. They're token. Tax payments are only for public relations. Successive governments have been unable to deal with multinational tax avoidance—because they're not really trying. Electoral donations keep getting in the way—funny how that works!

According to the OECD, Australians' average annual wage growth from 2019 to 2022 was the seventh lowest among the 38 OECD nations, at less than three per cent. Inflation is now six per cent, after being at eight per cent. If everyday Australians feel like they're working harder and going backwards, it's because they are. As Senator Babet quite rightly pointed out on this motion, if it feels like your mortgage and rent are a struggle to pay, it's because they are—thanks to Labor. Tax cuts for upper-income earners are coming next year. Here's a better idea: index the tax thresholds so that Australians don't pay tax when their wages rise to compensate for inflation and push them into a higher-rate tax bracket. We should be indexing taxes to the inflation rate to prevent bracket creep.

The Prime Minister has wrung every cent out of everyday Australians, and the political polls are saying quite clearly that people are jack of it. One Nation are now the party of workers. One Nation are the party of sensible economic management for the benefit of all Australians. We have one flag. We are one community. We are one economy. We are one nation.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rear-vision-mirror-itis is an affliction of this government, sadly. Since the election, I've not heard a contribution made by a government speaker that is purely about looking forward and how they're going to solve problems, without referring to the past. It's as if they have no control over anything and will therefore take no responsibility for anything. To that end, the coalition does support Senator Babet's motion in general terms, because it is right to say that the current government and their terrible approach to budget management, their lack of fiscal restraint, are causing huge problems in our nation, particularly for households and businesses.

I will point out that in the second paragraph Senator Babet refers to an example of a project: 'such as Snowy 2.0'. That's one we don't agree with, of course; we do support that project. But you only have to look a little bit further to see some of the terrible things the government are doing in terms of wasteful spending. We just spent nearly half a billion dollars on a divisive referendum. That's not a good use of taxpayers' money. We told this parliament that it didn't need to happen, but it was money spent all the same. What do we think that did to the economy and to inflation? What kind of impact do we think $1 billion on extra public servants is going to be having on the economy? Churning more money into jobs in this city is not going to ease inflationary pressures.

It was interesting to hear one of the Labor speakers earlier on, Senator Payman, mention that the government can walk and chew gum. Well, clearly they're walking in circles, because, frankly, nothing is getting better. The cost of living is going up, but we keep hearing that they've got it under control. Thank goodness there's this Labor government in charge now, making lives better and easier for all Australians! I hope Senator Payman gets out and about and understands from her community exactly what is going on, because I don't think there's a single person that's telling her or any of her colleagues that the world is a better place since the election.

We copped a lot of stick at the last election for saying it wouldn't be easy under—the surname of the Prime Minister—Mr Albanese, and we were right. Power prices have gone up. Mortgage repayments have gone up. The cost of insurance has gone up. And the government continue to plough money into measures that will have an inflationary impact, because they are economically illiterate as a government. They have been every time they have been in power, and the impact on Australian households and business is always the same. The people that pay the bill at the end of the day are the people of Australia. It's the taxpayers who struggle to pay their power bills, who struggle to pay their mortgage repayments, who struggle to put fuel in the car to get their kids to school. They miss out because of Labor decisions and sometimes, dreadfully, Labor-Greens decisions. We support the motion, with the exception, as I said before, of the reference to the Snowy 2.0 project, because we believe that is a good one.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the urgency motion as moved by Senator Babet be agreed to.