Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You may laugh, but families actually have dogs and they love their animals. They spend a lot of money feeding them and looking after them. The price of dog food has gone through the roof. It's only one component of what goes in their grocery basket. If you look, fruit and veg that have gone up 23 per cent and a basket load of shopping that has increased overall by 19 per cent, so you now have three configurations. You have the price on fuel, insurance has gone up—if you notice any of your premiums coming through—you will notice that the cost of schooling has gone up, and the cost of daily living in every household has gone up.

Government is hard, because people expect government to look after their health and wellbeing. This new Labor government has a responsibility to the people of Australia to do everything they can, without laughing about dog food, without laughing about the cost to households. What will happen in this House is you will learn not to laugh when people are under pressure. You will learn not to laugh at families. And if I don't get a rise from you, it means this speech hasn't been worth giving. Thank you for mocking, and I think the time for this debate has expired. (Time expired)

See this speech in context