Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is an absolute joke. This motion that the opposition has put up is laughable. When you think of the last 10 years, when they were in government, it's like they've tried to whitewash history from 2013 through to 2022. It's like nothing existed before 21 May 2022, and they have forgotten that they were in government all those years and implemented nothing.

Now, when you're in government, you have a duty to lay down the foundations for the future. And that's what they failed to do. They failed to do that with health, and we saw that the highest out-of-pocket costs for health were in their era. They froze the Medicare levy, which saw an increase in costs. They were in government when we had the lowest wages on record. And then, of course, we can't forget their bungled 22 policies for energy—not one or two but 22. Had they had a coherent policy in place we might have seen energy prices a bit lower in today's world. We know that the only way to bring energy prices down is to have more players in the market. If you're an energy producer, or in the market for selling energy, why would you have committed to anything in those last 10 years, without any certainty?

If you look at the issues that we're going through today—yes, there are cost-of-living problems for families and there are interest rate rises—there was nothing put in place, for 10 years, to build some sort of foundation to protect the Australian public. To come in here today and move this matter of public importance is a laugh and a joke. You should be taking responsibility. What's happening today is due to your inactions of 10 years. As I said, we saw the lowest productivity rates and the lowest wage increases. And, when we tried to argue against low wages, we were told it would increase inflation. We were told we shouldn't interfere with the industrial commission. We were told that they weren't interested in seeing any wage increase to assist the Australian public.

The cycle of rate rises began before the election. We saw the first rate rises way before the election. One of the things that keep mortgage rates at a lower level is the affordability of housing. Another is the ability to have stock in the market. So we've delivered a housing policy—and the opposition have voted against it—which will deliver 100,000 homes and take some pressure off that particular market. They voted against it. In December the Prime Minister brought parliament back to ensure that we could put some action in place that would assist with energy costs. What did the opposition do? They voted against it. And they come in here today, wanting to talk about the cost of living and the rising power bills et cetera. It's a joke. Look at the opposition benches. There are two people sitting on the backbench and one person sitting at the table. Even their own backbench has given up on their tactics committee. They're not in here. Whoever wrote this particular MPI today is an embarrassment.

We are delivering on many fronts that they have opposed. We are delivering on cheaper child care, expanded paid parental leave and cheaper medicines. In my electorate alone, $300,000 was saved through cheaper medicines in January and February, when we lowered the PBS prices. That is incredible. We need more affordable housing and we're acting on that. We're delivering on energy bill relief and we're getting wages moving again, which is so important—and something they did not do for 10 years. In fact, they wanted to see lower wages; we remember their former finance minister arguing against any increase in wages, saying how great it was for the economy and that wages should be low. We're paying the price today for government inaction for the last 10 years.

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