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

I move:

That the Senate take note of all answers to all questions asked by coalition senators.

What we've experienced this afternoon is one of those out-of-body experiences where you get to look at and take a helicopter view of what this government is about. It was summed up in question time when you had this caricature of backflips and flip-flops and dillydallying, sprinkled with this unhealthy sugar dust of incompetence. It was summed up in question time because of the arrogance of this government, who tell the Australian people that they've never had it so good. It's the Marie Antoinette approach to executive government of let them eat cake, because they've never had it so good.

We heard minister after minister get up and respond to questions that were put by coalition senators about cost of living, the riots in Alice Springs last night and the failure of the Prime Minister to lead a mature government. What did we get from this Labor Party? We got arrogance. We had the arrogance of a government who have been in power for almost two years and have started to believe their own press releases written by their own media and press advisers, because they've started to think that what they are doing is quite good. Guess what? It isn't.

Any politician who leaves Canberra and spends some time on the road—as coalition senators do day after day, going around their states listening to and living with their constituents—knows that the number one issue impacting upon Australians today is cost of living. Cost of living are the three words that this Labor Party government did not mention at all last year. Cost of living did not come into the lexicon of the modern Labor Party until the Voice referendum happened. When that got rejected, suddenly some focus groups were conducted by the Labor Party and they discovered cost of living was the number one issue in Queensland and in Australia. I can tell you, as someone who was on pre-poll for days on days and was in Brisbane on polling day and for the by-elections, the number one issue in Queensland is cost of living. The message that was sent to the Labor Party on cost of living was a pretty strong one. In Ipswich, the seat of Ipswich West fell to the Liberal-National Party. There was a 22 per cent swing in the very, very, very safe seat of Inala, a fiefdom of the Labor Party that was almost taken by our brilliant LNP candidate running there.

What's happened is that Queenslanders and Australians are turning on the Labor Party. They're turning on the left wing because they know that this Labor Party made a lot of promises before the last election. Remember that they were going to cut your power bills by $275, a promise that was made by the Prime Minister 97 times? Put your hands up, Australia, put your hands up, Queensland, if your power bill has gone down by $275. No-one has put their hand up. Not even the Labor Party benches put their hand up, because power bills have gone up. So for those who are listening at home, your power bills have not gone down by $275; they've gone up by 10, 15, 20 per cent.

Queenslanders and Australians are living and experiencing a cost of living crisis at the moment, and what we have from Labor Party? We have platitudes, we have the arrogance of this executive, this executive of the Labor Party government who fail to understand or appreciate how tough it is in Queensland at the moment. Queenslanders have to deal with a state level government and a federal Labor government. Think about the people living in Townsville who have got a crime crisis, a health crisis, a cost-of-living crisis; but guess what? The people living in Townsville are not by themselves, because those crises are in Cairns, Cunnamulla, in Warwick where I live. They're in the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane. Queenslanders are being let down by the Labor Party. Australians are being let down by the Labor Party. Because we have a Labor Party who are just not up to the job of government. We've seen the flip-flops. We know where the Labor Party cabinet meets: it meets in the flip-flop section of Kmart, because they're all choosing which flip-flops they're going to wear: the pink ones, the blue ones, the ones with little spikes on them. This is a government of flip-flops, backflips and dilly-dallying. They are a government who are not up to the job of governing. I say, why don't you call an election? Let's have an election now. Let's get on with it and have a vote on whether you understand the cost of living crisis that is hurting Australia at the moment.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Day after day we see those opposite coming here with their own flip-flopping and disorder, no plan and nothing but a contribution that amounts to their own chaos. They have no plan when they come in here other than to inflict chaos in their own debate. Far from a real policy critique, we had a discussion of flip-flops in the Kmart section. This is not substantive policy critique on the real issues facing Australians. But as a mature and orderly government, under Anthony Albanese—in the question asked by Senator Cash, Senator Cash quoted the Prime Minister in November 2022 as saying just that. But personally I have heard the Prime Minister make that very same statement dozens of times, rightfully so, since that time.

Every time I see and meet with the Prime Minister and the cabinet, be that in the caucus meeting, out in the community, in the parliament and electorates, in every place where we see him and the government, we see a laserlike focus on the cost of living, wages, controlling inflation, the cost of medication, bringing the cost of visiting a doctor down, our energy rebates, education. Whether it's the religious freedom debate, education, cars or energy, we are working through the significant issues that confront out nation. We're bringing them forward and bringing the Australian people with us. We are deliberating carefully through orderly processes, which, quite often, those opposite don't want to come to the party on. When it comes to a mature and orderly government dealing with the issue of religious discrimination, for example, it will be much more orderly if Mr Dutton comes to the party in having a real discussion with government about what we can agree on. Whether it is the cost-of-living summit, tax cuts, energy, Medicare, cheaper medicines, the energy transition or delivering the first budget surplus in many years, we take these decisions carefully. They are methodical decisions that are well deliberated on.

Day after day, we come into this place dedicated to and focused on delivering outcomes for the Australian people, despite the fact that what we are rewarded with from those opposite, in their representation of the Australian people, is references to flip-flops from Kmart, disorder and chaos. There's no plan and no alternative policy agenda, just the usual politics that we see from those opposite, seeking to promulgate chaos and division. It is their core political tactic, and it is a far cry from the level of policy critique and debate that our nation deserves. Frankly, all governments benefit from policy critique when they have a good opposition that is deeply involved in the policy discussions and debate, able to mount a clear alternative policy and able to debate the issues before the Australian people. But, no, all those opposite do is oppose and divide.

Here in this place today I want to recognise that— (Time expired)

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

Senator Pratt talked about flip-flops in Kmart. Senator Pratt is a dedicated senator, so I'm sure she wasn't doing online shopping during question time. Maybe she read some government briefs and saw the term 'flip-flop' there. It seems that it's almost part of every government brief that they can't stick to what they said before the last election. Maybe they were a bit confused when they came to government and so at the top of every brief it says, 'Make sure we flip-flop today, because we can't stick to the commitments we made in opposition.'

Let's go through some of the Labor government flip-flops, which Senator Pratt spoke about so eloquently. They promised to keep people safe, particularly in relation to border security. Well, we can all see what the government has done in that area. There's the infamous $275 cut to power bills. Every Australian knows that their power bills have soared over the last two years, so that was another nice flip-flop from the Labor Party. They promised—committed—that Australians were going to be better off. As Senator Birmingham clearly pointed out in his question to the minister, a family with a $750,000 mortgage has now seen costs increase by $22,000 dollars per annum. At the same time, what have we seen happen to income tax receipts? They've gone up 23 per cent under this Labor government. What is that caused by? That is caused by the insidious effects of inflation and bracket creep—inflation that I think this government actually wants to see stay a bit higher for a bit longer because, over time, it will deflate their debt.

There are other examples of flip-flops and broken promises. We've seen the stage 3 tax cuts, in relation to which the Prime Minister's word 'was his bond'. Of course, we know where that went. They promised cheaper mortgages. I've just talked about that. For a $750,000 mortgage held by an average Australian family, costs have increased by $22,000. They promised no increase in the tax burden, but that has gone up by 23 per cent. The Labor Party promised no changes to superannuation, but they've attacked self-managed super funds particularly. For the first time in Australia's history, unrealised capital gains are being taxed within a super fund. This is going to impact particularly on Australian farmers and small-business owners who have chosen to put part of their income generating asset—their farm or perhaps an office they work out of—into, as is quite legal and proper, their self-managed super fund. So, for the first time in Australia's history, if there is an uplift in the value of an asset to take individuals above the $3 million cap, suddenly an unrealised gain—a paper profit—is going to be taxed.

The flip-flops just keep on going. They promised that franking credits wouldn't be touched, and they promised that industrial relations bargaining wouldn't be industrywide. They said: 'No, we wouldn't go there. We wouldn't go back to pattern bargaining. We wouldn't go back to the bad old days of the seventies and eighties.' But of course, they do. As Senator Pratt acknowledged, they flip-flop. This is a government that made so many commitments before the last election that they have walked away from in government—commitments which the Australian people thought meant something and which the Australian people relied on in making their decision. Commitment after commitment after commitment has been walked away from by this Labor government. We will continue to hold them to account, and we will continue to tell the Australian people what this Labor government is doing to them.

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

I think it's important, when we come into the chamber, that we are forthright in our views, but I think it's really important that we actually put the facts on the record. It's not that the government on this side has only just discovered the cost of living. We have been putting forward legislation and policies to help Australian families. We recognise that there has been an increase in the cost of living and the impact of that. But what those opposite failed to tell you is that, when they were in government, their policy was to keep wages low. Since we've come into government, we've raised Australian wages. We've actually ensured that we are doing all that we can, by setting legislative frameworks, to close the disparity in pay between women in the workforce and their male counterparts who do the same job. We have achieved the lowest gender pay gap in this country on record. Unemployment is now at 3.7 per cent. Let's not forget that every single measure that we've put forward—like cheaper medicines, energy relief and 60-day prescriptions; all of those things which have a direct impact on the family budget—have been opposed by those opposite every single time. When it came to cheaper child care, they opposed it.

We are about strengthening Medicare because it's a universal health system that is worth protecting. But the unfortunate thing is that it relies purely and solely on having a Labor government to ensure that those on that side don't erode it. We have given more relief to GPs so more people can get to see their GP. Those on that side have no credibility when it comes to the economy. They sing their own praises but, in the last budget, it was a Labor government which brought in the first surplus for so very long. Those opposite kept promising a surplus when they were in government for 10 years but they failed to deliver it.

The good senator before me talked about tax cuts. You show me an Australian who is not getting a bigger tax cut that is opposed to the changes that we made? We did that after close consideration of the economic circumstances, the interest rates and the cost-of-living crisis. We are actually giving more Australians a bigger tax cut. We believe that, when you work hard, you should keep more of your pay. But those opposite are not happy. They wanted to maintain the Scott Morrison tax cuts, which only gave the big increase to the big end of town, to politicians and high-income earners. We are about supporting aspirational voters, aspirational families who are trying to get ahead. That is who we are prepared to deliver our tax cuts to.

Let's turn to another issue. It amazes me why those on that side want to play politics with religion and religious discrimination. Why can't they come to the table and ensure that we have legislation that is going to be bipartisan? Why do they always have to try and take political mileage out of something that is fundamentally so important to Australians? No Australian should be discriminated against because of their faith or their religious beliefs. Here on this side, as a Christian, I feel very comfortable in the Labor Party because we are about ensuring that there's no discrimination in this country, whether it is on the basis of your colour, your nationality, your religious beliefs, your sexuality, your disability or, very importantly, your age. That is what we believe in but we are always happy to work with the opposition, but, when it suits them, they are very quick to get into bed with the Greens and take political mileage out of something that is fundamental to our community. It's a disgrace.

We will come in here and debate with you every single day to ensure that the facts are put on the table, that we as a government have delivered on our election promises. I'm going to run out of time without talking about veterans' affairs. (Time expired)

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

Before I give the call to Senator Rennick, I will set the clocks for three minutes then I'll put the question and I will give the call to Senator Hanson. I will then set the clock on two minutes and then I will come to the Greens.

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

It is a bloodbath out there. Australians are doing it tough under the Albanese government. Labour productivity is down 7.5 per cent over the last 18 months. Real disposable income has fallen by 7.5 per cent. Personal income taxes are up by 23 per cent, much higher than before the election. And labour income from self-employment has fallen by eight per cent. Why is that? It's because the Albanese Labor government have lost control the economy. They have let immigration run too high at over 500,000 people a year, and they have allowed interest rates to rocket upwards, causing building contractors to go broke. So not only have we got increasing demand for housing but also decreasing supply, so the gap between those people who can actually find a house and those people who can get into one is increasing all the time. That is a direct result of a reckless policy. I don't recall Australians ever being told at the last election that we were going to suddenly double—actually triple—immigration from levels pre-election of around 280,000 to around 550,000, and that is totally reckless. We're yet to hear the Albanese Labor government explain the reason for this. Why are they allowing this to happen? We are seeing tent cities rise up everywhere, even in my home town of Brisbane in parks. You cannot walk across a park or see a park now without a tent being pitched there. Just across from my electoral office is a park. We've got tents there.

And, of course, the other big contribution to the cost of living is the enormous increase in energy prices as a result of the Albanese government's reckless rush into renewable energy. The way they're doing this is by heavily subsidising what is effectively unaffordable. So not only have we got increased energy prices; we have got wasted taxpayers' funds in these subsidies trying to prop up something that without subsidies wouldn't work. Just yesterday, I know that the energy minister, Chris Bowen, was skiting about how they'd spent $5 billion on batteries that will provide backup storage for just one million houses. How on earth is spending $5 billion to provide a couple of hours of storage for one million houses considered cheap, reliable and effective? It's not. The Albanese government is out of control, and they need to get their act together.

Question agreed to.