Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, you'll be happy to know I have no Elton John references! Sorry to the member for Moreton and the member for Fraser. But the member for Fraser has just summed up very well with statistics—as he does, as a well-renowned economist—how Australians are struggling. I commend him on that. What he didn't talk about was the mistake after mistake that the Albanese government have made that have led to this. But I will talk a little bit about the member for Moreton, because the song he so beautifully deconstructed for us was about trust and integrity. I thought, 'Wow, that's a brave place to go, given your Prime Minister misled the Australian people over 100 times.'

Let's look through what's happened in the last 20 months since the Prime Minister made a few comments. Let's be really clear. The quotes I'm about to provide from the Prime Minister were from his campaign launch. This wasn't off the cuff. This was decisions that he and his team had made for his campaign launch. Let's start with a direct quote. He talked about 'meaningful help with your cost of living'. Well, as the member for Fraser just pointed out so articulately, in the last 20 months he has done nothing to help Australians with their cost of living. Thank you, Member for Fraser, for outlining that so well for me.

In the second quote from the Prime Minister—Leader of the Opposition at the time—he talks about 'going to embark on a new era of economic reform with productivity growth at the centre'. How is productivity growth going since this Prime Minister took over 20 months ago? It's negative 6.1 per cent, and that's with this Prime Minister putting it at the centre of his objectives. Wow! I have another quote, and this is one of my favourites. The member for Groom will understand how important this one is:

Labor has real, lasting plans for

Twenty months later, how is that going, Member for Banks? Not very well for this Prime Minister, not very well for the Australian people. But it's okay; they'll get back $15 a week in five months time—problem solved! The Prime Minister has solved it. The next quote is:

Labor has real, lasting plans for

…   …   …

We're 20 months into this prime ministership, so he's responsible for everything that's happened. He's had opportunities to make decisions to improve the lives of Australians. What have we seen under this Prime Minister? Interest rates up 12 times. That's not cheaper mortgages for the Australian people. This is another good one, and it's become very relevant:

I will lead with integrity …

The member for Moreton talked about integrity and not misleading people. How has the Prime Minister gone with integrity in the last few weeks? Well, he misled the Australian people over 100 times when it came to the stage 3 tax cuts, including in January this year, well after the invasion of Ukraine, well after the Israel-Gaza conflict began, well after the cost-of-living challenges we're all facing. Then he even said, 'My word is my bond.' Wow! That's integrity.

His solution to these challenges for the Australian people is $15 a week in five months time. But the other bit he doesn't talk about is when the government made a decision last year to let the low- and middle-income tax offset lapse. That was $1,500 a year taken away from the Australian people.

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