James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I absolutely voted against energy prices going up by 24 per cent; thank you for the opportunity to reconfirm that. The fact that the government are bragging about electricity prices under their policies going up by 24 per cent is surprising, politically, but also disgraceful, when you think about the impact that is having on family budgets. Real wages are going down. Electricity prices in South Australia are going up by 24 per cent. Mortgages are going up. Rents are going up. People are making very difficult decisions around the kitchen table. They are cancelling family holidays. Maybe they are taking their kids out of a private school that they can't afford to send them to anymore. They are making difficult decisions about budgets for Christmas presents and how they're going to make ends meet through the holiday season, the high-cost season, because they don't have the real purchasing power today that they had 12 months ago, two years ago, three years ago or four years ago, because they're going backwards. Their wages are going backwards and their costs are dramatically going up.

The most recent inflation figure is six per cent annualised. To suggest that that's something to welcome and to delight in, the fact that it has moderated from seven per cent—as if six per cent is some sort of improvement from seven per cent. That means the destruction of people's wealth has slowed from seven per cent to six per cent. They're still going backwards, just at a slightly lesser velocity than the quarter before. Bragging about that and suggesting that that's something to be proud of as a record of the government absolutely beggars belief.

It is tough times out there right now, and those opposite had an opportunity to talk about what they're doing to address it. Instead, they're either pretending that it hasn't happened or talking about a government that ended 15 months ago. Why do people go into politics and want to get into government to then proceed to do absolutely nothing when they're there? We know what the culture is amongst those opposite. They're all about themselves and not about the struggling families of Australia.

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