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

You'll often hear in the media commentary that Western Australian voters were pivotal to the election of the Albanese Labor government. Well, if WA voters are the ones who handed the Prime Minister the keys to the Lodge, they have every right to be the ones that hand him and his government their report card.

Western Australians, like all Australians, have a fairly straightforward test for the government of the day. Are we better off than we were three years ago? Western Australians are asking themselves, 'Has my savings account grown or dwindled? Has my mortgage burden improved or worsened? Is the day-to-day running of my small business easier or harder?' To all these questions and many more, the answer is a frustrating no.

The data shows that our national economy and the economy in my home state are teetering on the edge of recession, with many families hurting, as this government has failed to do the job it was elected to do. Just take a look at how families are struggling to build their savings accounts, with the average household saving ratio at just 0.9 per cent. This is a confronting statistic. It means that many Australians are living pay cheque to pay cheque and that they are finding it nearly impossible to save for that next big purchase, like a car or home repairs. In many cases, they are one unexpected payment away from serious financial strife.

This isn't because Australians can't manage their money; it's because Labor can't manage the nation's economy. Australians are struggling to make ends meet in an economy held in a vice grip by Labor's sticky, homegrown inflation crisis. Western Australians in particular are feeling the impact of this cost-of-living crisis more than most, with the Perth consumer price index increasing by 4.6 per cent in the last year, well ahead of the national average of 3.8 per cent. In fact, in the June quarter alone, Perth had a 2.1 per cent CPI increase. That's twice the national figure.

It's not just the rising expenses of the weekly grocery shop or fuel costs that have eaten away at household savings but also the surging increases in mortgages, home loans and rents that are making everyday life a financial battle. I recently obtained data from the Reserve Bank of Australia that reveals the extent to which more and more homeowners cannot keep up with their mortgage repayments, and the numbers are damning for the government. The share of borrowers in 90-day arrears in Western Australia has surged from 0.3 per cent to 0.62 per cent over the last year alone. That's a 44 per cent jump. That's the second worst in the nation, second only to Victoria at 0.67 per cent, with increases in every single state and territory in the last year.

To emphasise the point, Gosnells in Perth is now ranked within the top eight suburbs in Australia with the lowest share of borrowers with a high mortgage burden sitting at 15 per cent, according to the RBA. The median price of a home in Gosnells has jumped by 32.5 per cent, and rents have climbed by 20.8 per cent. That's a microcosm of what is happening across WA and across the whole country as housing and mortgage affordability continues to worsen.

These cost-of-living pressures are in tandem with a slowing economy and falling consumer and business confidence. We are now hearing of rising unemployment on top of that, making the complete picture of the economic pain being felt all the more severe. In Westpac's most recent consumer sentiment bulletin, published just yesterday, the bank's index reported a fall of 0.5 per cent, punctuating yet another month of falling consumer sentiment as Australians grow more fearful of the state of our economy. To quote the bulletin, small improvements in some areas of the economy 'were more than offset by a loss of confidence' around others. The report continues:

The less confident outlook for the economy is also sparking fears about potential job loss. The … Unemployment Expectations Index rose 3.7% to 138.4 in September, up 11% since April and now materially above its long run average of 129 …

To put it plainly: on top of the added stress of whether households can afford their next mortgage repayment, they are now more fearful than they had been for a long time about their job security. Those fears aren't unfounded, as many businesses are struggling to stay solvent, let alone maintain staff. Why has Labor made it so hard for WA families? (Time expired)

Senate adjourned at 19:45