Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'm pleased to speak on this issue, and I'm pleased that there's support to get on and talk about this MPI, because cost of living is one of the issues that Australians are feeling very deeply right now. When it comes to what Australians are talking about on the street, out in my electorate and elsewhere, it's cost of living, cost of living, cost of living. Rising inflation and interest rates are extremely painful in the suburbs, in the regions and in the cities. What's changed about this in the last few months is that we're not just seeing this at the fuel bowser. We're seeing it at the grocery checkout, we're seeing it when people buy furniture, we're seeing it when people buy services—we are seeing it across the board, Mr Speaker—but most of all, in the next few months, we're going to see it in the mortgage bills.

For a typical house of $750,000 in my electorate—in places like Elderslie, Spring Farm, Campbelltown and Camden—we are seeing that the average Australian is very soon going to be paying an extra $900 a month on their mortgage payments. That's well over $10,000 a year that the average Australian on a mortgage is going to be paying. We know that one-third of Australians have a mortgage, and they are the people working hard and raising families in so many of our electorates, Mr Speaker. As I look around, I see—

An opposition member: Angus, it's Madam Deputy Speaker.

Thank you; I appreciate that Deputy Speaker Claydon is now in the chair. What we are seeing in those suburbs is this increase in mortgage payments. Mr Speaker, it's not over yet.

Honourable members interjecting—

Deputy Speaker, it is not over yet.

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