Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A letter has been received from Senator McGrath:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

Instead of blaming global uncertainty for higher-than-expected inflation figures, it is clear that rising domestic costs for housing, electricity and groceries demonstrate Australia's inflation problems are now home-grown and the Albanese Labor Government has no plan to make it any easier for Australian households and businesses.

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.

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

It is becoming increasingly clear that inflation is not coming from Ukraine. It is becoming increasingly clear that inflation is not coming from the war in the Middle East. It is becoming increasingly clear that inflation is not coming from whichever random country the Labor Party point to on an atlas. Inflation is coming from Canberra. Inflation is coming from the Prime Minister's Office. It's coming from his desk. Inflation is coming from the cabinet table. Inflation is coming from every Labor MP and senator in this building. The Labor Party are to blame for inflation.

Australians are feeling the pain. They are feeling the pain of Labor's approach to inflation. What is interesting is that, in the most recent Newspoll, our Prime Minister, who is commonly known by Australians as 'Airbus Albo', has—

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Acting Deputy President, a point of order.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator McGrath. I think I know what the point of order is.

Senators, I call you to order. First, I'm going to ask you, Senator Scarr, to withdraw your comment.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Senator McGrath, I seek your commitment to not use that term in that way and refer to the Prime Minister by his proper title. You have the call.

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

I withdraw. The Prime Minister has been granted a temporary protection visa to come into this country. It's nice of him to visit Australia. He's got his passport stamped. I hope he enjoys the remaining hours he has in Australia before he departs to go to another foreign country somewhere on an Airbus or a Boeing—it could be a Cessna, or a VIP—whatever that is—one of those Falcons. He might even get one of those boats!

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An Elon Musk rocket!

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

An Elon Musk rocket—he could certainly do that too.

What is interesting is that Australians have woken up to this Labor Party and to this Labor government. They know that inflation is coming from the Prime Minister's desk—the vacant Prime Minister's desk that's in a corridor in this building. It's interesting that the RBA Governor, Michele Bullock, came out last week, saying that inflation is becoming increasingly homegrown and demand driven. Why is this? What are some of the reasons for this? Is it because the Labor Party are spending an extra hundred and $88 billion—that is 'b' for billion, as in 'b' in 'Airbus. It's $188 billion extra—that's how much they're spending. Or is it the extra 10,000 public servants who are coming to Canberra?

Some of my best friends are public servants—of course, they wouldn't say that in public! But do we really need an extra 10,000 public servants coming to Canberra? No, we don't need that. What the Labor government are doing here is that they're driving up inflation. And when they drive inflation up because of all the extra public servants they're appointing or because of all the extra billions of dollars they're spending, it means that normal Australians, who are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis caused by this Labor government, are being hurt. It's a real kick in the guts for Australians to see a Labor Party and a Labor government who are so out of touch with how modern Australians live their lives. How do they live their lives at the moment? It's by making sure they pay their bills and making sure they work out how the money that's coming in matches the money that's going out.

Wouldn't it be nice if this Labor Party government did the same thing with the taxes of the Australian people—making sure that the money which comes in matches the money that's going out? But, oh, no, no! What we see with this Labor Party and this Labor government is a government which is hurting Australians by pushing up inflation. This is the Christmas present that everybody is going to get from the Labor Party—that is, everything is going to cost more. Your stockings, your toys, your Christmas pudding, your mince pies and your mulled wine—everything is going to cost more because of Anthony Albanese and his Labor government.

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

I'll start by thanking Senator McGrath for this particular MPI and for drawing attention to how the government is managing the inflation challenge. The senator proposed that we discuss the government's plans to help households in the current environment, and I am happy to have that discussion. I'm also happy to point out that the coalition have done absolutely nothing to support households from the opposition benches—absolutely nothing. Indeed they've voted against, or opposed, every single measure that has been designed to give households some relief in this environment. They have voted against or opposed every single measure! So let's look at some facts about inflation.

First of all, we know that inflation does hurt households and that it hurts the lowest paid the most. That's why we are targeting our $23 billion in relief to those who need it most. This is electricity bill relief that is putting downward pressure on bills for five million households and one million small businesses. It's energy relief that those opposite opposed. There was the largest investment in bulk-billing in Medicare's history, helping 11 million people to see a doctor for free—a measure which those opposite opposed. Australians saved $180 million because of cheaper medicines—$180 million saved, a measure which they opposed.

As I said, we know that inflation hurts those with the least; that's why we focused on driving wages growth—after a decade of the Liberals absolutely loving low wages—starting with the lowest paid. There was a much-needed wage rise for our deserving aged-care workers after a decade of neglect by those opposite, with a $100-a-week boost to the minimum wage for our essential workers—which those opposite opposed. We are proud of looking after the most disadvantaged while you stand on the sidelines just saying no.

Second—and this is a fact about inflation that those opposite don't want to hear—inflation is moderating. It's moderating here and it's moderating around the world. The most recent IMF World Economic Outlook stated that the IMF expects inflation to return to target in around 2025 in most nations. Treasury here at home expects inflation to return to target in the next financial year. The return to target here is expected to be in line with most other nations. Inflation is moderating here because we are finding savings and because we are targeting relief to people who need it the most. ABS data shows that our cost-of-living measures, which you opposed, shaved half a percentage point off inflation in the September quarter. That is actual data.

Third, we know that the experts agree that the government's fiscal strategy is working hand in hand with the RBA's monetary tightening. We are exercising restraint in returning revenue to the budget bottom line. We are getting the budget back in shape by banking new revenue, which is going towards paying down the previous government's debt. We've delivered the first surplus in 15 years and the biggest ever turnaround in the budget—from a $78 billion deficit to a $22 billion surplus. The IMF has said that our budget repair strategy is helping, not hampering, the fight against inflation. We note that Fitch agrees as well. Our AAA credit rating shows that our budget strategy is right for the times. The RBA governor herself, who you have quoted, has described our fiscal strategy as very helpful and very positive.

Finally, let's talk about the facts of the opposition's position on inflation. Your position is completely untenable. You opposed measures that we know are helping Australians. You opposed measures that we know are putting downward pressure on bills. You opposed measures that we know are actually shaving inflation. When asked what you'd do differently, you said that you would cut social housing. That's what you told us you would do. When asked what you'd do differently, you said that you would cut the National Reconstruction Fund, just when we're getting our economy moving again. So you keep opposing and you keep saying no and we'll get on with the job of rolling out the support that Australian families need. (Time expired)

Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this matter of public importance. I thank Senator McGrath for raising it, mainly because we on this side of the chamber know that this cost-of-living crisis that we're now in is real. We know because we talk to people about it every single day of the year. The RBA recently confirmed something which those on this side of the chamber have known for a long period of time—that is, that, despite the attempts to distract, blame others and point the finger at international factors and concerns about what's causing this cost-of-living crisis, the cause of this crisis actually arises domestically. For too long we've heard this Labor government blame other people and other things for that which is of their own making—whether it's overseas wars, the cost of the international energy market, UFOs invading or some other factor.

If the Labor Party want to have a look at what's causing this, all they need to do tomorrow morning is go into their caucus room and look at each other and potentially even look at the Prime Minister, although there would be a very slim chance of finding him at the helm. Where is he today? Does anybody know? We'd have to check. It has been said before that the best way to get a message through to the Prime Minister is to simply find your way to Washington, get to the west wing and stick a post-it note on Joe Biden's door in order to get a message through: 'Next time you see our Prime Minister, Mr President, can you please pass on the message that Australians are suffering through a cost-of-living crisis.' They might do the same thing at 10 Downing Street.

But the way through this, of course, is to accept that the local and domestic policies of this government are what are driving this crisis. Australians know it. Increasingly, they are seeing it, because there's no way around it. This is not a problem which has come about in the last 10 minutes, either. This is a problem which has effectively been driven by policymaking matters, like the extraordinary explosion in red tape in this country. We know this, and the people who know this best are our farmers. I've heard complaints on my travels over and over again about the difficulties that are now had. We heard it at the state level in Western Australia, with the heritage laws that were put in being emblematic of the problem of the explosion in red tape in this country. That's what you get when you blow up the bureaucracy and get city based bureaucrats making decisions and imposing regulatory burdens on the economy. That is one absolute, surefire way of causing a cost-of-living crisis. And that wasn't us, by the way. That has happened on the watch of this Prime Minister.

The other problem, of course, is the war on energy and the net zero hoax. If ever asked what we could be doing—although the question has to be, 'What can we actually do?'—my response is, 'Drill, baby, drill.' We should be drilling everywhere we can. We should be drilling in the Great Australian Bight, all over the Top End—

and in downtown Victoria, Senator Babet—wherever it may be—because cheap energy is a surefire way to get this economy moving, to put downward pressure on inflation and to put Australians back into the position where we can afford to do things like manufacture again in this country. We are effectively now at the behest of these global energy markets that we hear so much about. That hasn't just happened because it's happened; it's happened because of the war on cheap energy, and that is a serious problem.

So what does this side of the chamber propose to do about it? If given the opportunity at the next election, this side of politics will support policy that's in the best interests of this country on every single level. We will support the resources industry; our farmers, who do so much heavy lifting; and those domestic manufacturers that are still in business at this point, and we'll make sure that they thrive and prosper here. We'll do what we always do: we'll back small business. The war on small business has got to be over. Ask a small-business person at the moment how they're tracking. With the IR laws that are to be passed by this parliament at some point, that's only going to get worse.

This side of the chamber will do everything it can to support households and families across Australia, who are doing it tough at the moment. These hikes in inflation and other cost burdens to households and businesses will be right in the gunsight of this opposition.

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

The days of blaming the war in Ukraine for inflation are over, or at least they should be. While I'll admit that the war in Ukraine has had some ripple effects, it was never true that overseas events were the major cause of this Labor government's economic woes. In fact, our government is the main architect of our nation's problems. Those on my left, on that side of the chamber, shouldn't take all the blame. The Libs had a part in that as well; we all know that. But the Labor government is in charge now, and they should be doing more.

The government spends taxpayer money like it's endless, like it's free and like the debt never needs to be repaid. Well, guess what? It has to be repaid with interest. Australia's inflation problem is homegrown. Much of the problem is created right here in our nation's capital, in Canberra. Since the government clearly doesn't have a plan, allow me to make some simple suggestions that would immediately help to ease inflationary pressure. The government could begin by doing this: abandon net zero. It is a fetish—that's what it is—that has resulted in record high power prices. This one policy decision would immediately lower prices right across the economy. Here's another idea: slash the migration intake. Record immigration is making our housing crisis worse, increasing prices and increasing homelessness. It's pretty basic.

I understand that net zero is an ideological tick that the government cannot shake, and it's also a way to fudge the books and make the numbers look better. So I'll make a third suggestion: why doesn't Treasurer Chalmers cut taxes, reduce levies and cut duties? He could start by cutting the fuel excise. How about that one? If you cut the transportation costs you immediately provide price relief on almost everything. We all know that; it is pretty simple stuff. I know what you are thinking—since when does a Labor government let its citizens keep more of their money? Since when?

I will make one more suggestion. If the government wants to get inflation under control, it should ruthlessly cut red, green and black tape while deregulating as much of the economy as possible. If it did that, productivity and competition would improve, and inflationary pressures would ease for the long-term. In three minutes or so, I have four points to address inflation, which is more than what Treasurer Chalmers has done in 18 months, as far as I can tell. But I am guessing the government will not take up any of my suggestions, not because it hasn't thought of them—of course it has—but because this government is more committed to climate ideology, to taxation, to bureaucracy and to mass immigration, rather than being committed to helping struggling Australian families.

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

As a servant of the people of Queensland as Australia, if your mortgage payment has increased, if you have struggled to find a rental, if your power bill is higher than two years ago, if you nearly fainted at the checkout on your last grocery shop, listen in. All of these problems started right here in Parliament House, not overseas like the Albanese Labor government claims. Neither Labor nor Liberal can fix them. Both parties either created or turbocharged the problems facing Australians now. We see the Prime Minister is struggling in the polls and might need a plan to make it easier for Australian households and businesses.

This is how One Nation, a party with the guts to say what people are thinking and needing, would fix it. Firstly, cut the insanely high overseas arrival program. In a country of just 26 million people, there are currently 2.3 million additional visa holders in Australia. All are fighting Australians for rentals. Australia's rental vacancy record is at a record low of 1.06 per cent. Experts consider three per cent to be tight. Additionally, the cashed up migrants who can afford to buy are pushing up house prices leaving Australia's first homebuyers in the dust. That is something that can be done today. Cut the overseas arrivals; that will get Australians out of tents and cars, back under roofs where they should be. Everything else is a Band-Aid until we cut the amount of people flooding into the country to get Australians back under affordable roofs.

Secondly, ditch the United Nations World Economic Forum's net zero pipe dream. The Australian people have been lied to repeatedly, told that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of electricity. That lie is easily exposed with many facts, especially one simple fact: with more wind, solar, batteries and pumped hydro in the grid than ever before in Australia's history, electricity bills have never been higher. Even with the Labor government tipping in billions in more subsidies, there is no end in sight for Australians hoping they will get cheaper power bills. Remember only a year ago when now Prime Minister Albanese promised $275 off your power bill? Don't hold your breath. Don't look to the Liberals to help you there either. The Liberals and Nationals are equally committed to the net zero wind and solar pipe dream. That has only pushed power prices up over 20 years. That is all it has done. Only One Nation will ditch the net zero pipe dream that is wrecking households and businesses. We will restore cheap energy for all Australians.

Thirdly, inflation. The former Liberal government oversaw the creation of over $500 billion in new money out of thin air. Or, as a Reserve Bank deputy governor told me at the time: electronic journal entries out of thin air. That is a major cause of the inflation we're dealing with today. One Nation would cut unneeded government spending and return the budget to surplus so we don't have to borrow or print a single extra dollar because that would drive up inflation again.

Finally, cheap groceries. Australia has the richest farmland in the world yet it is tied up in red tape bureaucracy, green tape environmental excessive regulations that do nothing to protect the environment and blue United Nations policies controlling and restricting people's lives. Only this week the government will be passing legislation to steal water from farmers, water that could have grown veggies and beef for grocery shelves. Get rid of all the red, green and blue tape that does nothing to protect the environment. Let farmers do the job that farmers love doing—feeding and clothing Australia and the world. These are all obvious solutions: cut overseas arrivals to get Australia into houses with affordable rentals and mortgages; ditch net zero to get cheaper electricity; stop printing money to cut inflation; and let farmers farm to bring down grocery prices. That is how One Nation would get Australia back on track. Unlike the others, we have the guts to do it. We say it and we push it.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say to Senator Roberts: you don't have a monopoly on guts. We've got a bit of guts over here, too, Senator Roberts.

I congratulate Senator McGrath in relation to this matter of public importance. My colleague from Queensland is absolutely right, as he often is, in bringing forward this MPI:

Instead of blaming global uncertainty for higher-than-expected inflation figures, it is clear that rising domestic costs for housing, electricity and groceries demonstrate Australia's inflation problems are now home-grown and the Albanese Labor Government has no plan to make it any easier for Australian households and businesses.

You don't have to listen to politicians' opinions with respect to this MPI to know that what Senator McGrath is saying is absolutely correct. Let me give you three examples.

First, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock made a statement in relation to this in her speech at the Australian Business Economists annual dinner on 22 November 2023. You can find this online. If someone says, 'Senator Scarr has taken it out of context,' or 'He's done this or done the other,' you can read her speech online. This is what she said:

… I would like to focus on one particular consideration for policy: that the remaining inflation challenge we are dealing with is increasingly homegrown …

'Increasingly homegrown': those are the words of Ms Michele Bullock, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, no less. She gives three pieces of evidence to back up her opinion. The first signal is that inflation is broadly based. That's her first piece of evidence. The second indicator that inflation is being driven by domestic demand is that it is increasingly underpinned by services. Her third piece of evidence—the third signal—is the continuation of limited spare capacity, most evident in high rates of labour utilisation. That leads to her conclusion—it's not my conclusion. It's the conclusion of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia:

An important implication of this homegrown and demand-driven component to inflation is that getting inflation back to target will take time.

They're the words of the Reserve Bank governor of Australia.

The second piece of analysis I want to give you is, again, not the words of a politician. This analysis was by Michael Reed of the AFR, based on OECD data. This OECD data demonstrates that real household gross disposable income per capita—that's the amount of money Australians have in their pockets to pay for the goods and services that they need—the annual change to 30 June 2023 was minus 5.1 per cent in Australia. It was the worst in the whole of the OECD. No-one did worse. We did the worst. Do you get a gold medal for being the worst? I'm not sure, but we would have won it. Norway, minus 4.4; Sweden, minus 3.3; and Italy, minus 1.5: they all did better than us. Then there were those in positive territory: Hungary, 0.1; France, 1.6; UK, 2.2; US, 3.5; Chile, 5.6; and Spain, 6.0 per cent. So, in that 12-month period, Spain managed to achieve an increase in real household gross disposable income per capita of six per cent, while we achieved minus 5.1 per cent—the bottom of the OECD. Congratulations, Albanese government—the bottom of the OECD in the first 12 months of the Albanese Labor government. Minus 5.1 per cent: that's the result you got. I didn't make up those figures. Those are OECD figures. It's a damning result. It's a damning indictment of the performance of the Albanese Labor government.

There is a third piece of evidence that I will refer to. I've referred to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, I've referred to objective OECD data and now I'm going to refer to the canary in the coalmine, the Salvation Army, in relation to what they're saying in the lead-up to their Christmas appeal:

'People are at breaking point—and it hurts.'

Andrew said the survey also found that for those who do reach out to a charity this Christmas, almost half … will be doing so for the first time. This means that supporting the Salvos' Christmas Appeal is more important than ever.

And it is indeed.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Scarr. The time for the discussion has expired.