Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to talk about the government's failure to reduce cost-of-living pressures at this time, I can assure you. It's right to talk about the impact that mortgage costs going up is having on families, and what it's like growing up in that situation. Labor certainly does have a mortgage on a working class background, I can assure you—as someone who grew up in Ipswich. These pressures are felt across the nation, and how we respond to them is very, very important. It's the issue of our times.

Families are making some very difficult decisions. I was saddened to read an article in this week's Courier Mail talking about a great Toowoomba charity, Protea Place, that has had to cancel its major fund raising event this year because it simply wasn't able to sell tickets. People across Toowoomba had previously, for the last several years, been in a position where they could donate. In those good times, when there was money flowing through the economy, they were able to contribute and look after a local charity like Protea Place. I want to quickly say what a great job Protea Place do helping with a very sad situation. This is charity that looks after women over 65 who, increasingly, are coming to Toowoomba from regional areas hoping that they can find some housing in our region. They come all the way here and, sadly, find there is no room at the inn. Protea Place was built by the amazing Amanda Dalton to deal with this. This is the first time their event had to be cancelled because they simply couldn't sell enough tickets. This is a charity that I'm sure Toowoomba will gather around and support.

The same article spoke of the increase, year on year, in household costs—across mortgages, fuel, groceries, electricity and insurance—that the average Queenslander is facing. It's $1,150 per month. That's how much costs have gone up in the last 12 months. These are real pressures. The last speaker was right: this is an important MPI.

It's great to see so many Labor members of the economics committee here. They'll remember well the Governor of the RBA saying that the economy relies on confidence. At a time when we're talking about these cost-of-living pressures and at a time when we want the economy to be in a stronger position, he wants to see confidence. I'm not sure anyone got confidence out of the Assistant Treasurer's response today in question time. Apparently, there were three parts to the answer. That, I think, was part 2, following the infamous honey pot comments. This is a time when we need very, very focused measures that are going to have impacts, both short and long term, on the economy.

We talk about confidence. Every time we put an example to the government of the impact on our constituents of increasing energy prices, they say, 'Why don't you go back and tell them that you didn't vote for the Energy Price Relief Plan?' This is legislation that has happened; it has passed and it has failed. The government's response is, 'You should have voted for failed legislation.' Prices are still going up, and, worse, the obvious impact that always happens when you introduce price caps is happening before our eyes—we will see, and we are experiencing, a limitation in supply. We saw that with Senex's decision to pull out over a billion dollars of investment and, today, in speaking to APLNG about the impacts in my region of a reduction in their investment in the gas industry.

At a time when we need the economy to regain confidence and when we need a clear direction forward, what do we have? Quite frankly, we have statements that are just baffling. What compounds this failure is the litany of broken promises that preceded it. I know that the member for Fairfax has made the point many times, but we have not heard the number 275 from the government since the election. This was a promise repeated over and over again: 'Your energy bill will be reduced.'

Opposition members: By how much?

$275. I've heard that enough times, and I think the Australian people will continue to hear that number for a long time yet.

An opposition member: They're going to wait a long time.

They are going to wait a very long time, because that number will be repeated over and over. Energy prices are only going one way, and that is up.

We also heard a promise about cheaper mortgages. Today, the government was unable to talk about anywhere in the country where that has been experienced. The last one, of course, is that there would be no changes to super. Again, this is simply undermining confidence at a time when there is significant financial pressure on Australian households.

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