Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. It was the Minister for Indigenous Australians who made that submission, only this morning. You can go to Hansard and have a look at it. We have seen power prices increase by over 20 per cent.

I'll give you an example of a person in my electorate, in fact in my office, who went out and put solar on her roof because she was worried about the cost of electricity. Well, it's made no difference—absolutely no difference—because of the power prices. She hasn't got a battery—couldn't afford the battery. It's going back into the grid, but the cost of power is so high that it makes no difference to her. There are people out there struggling to pay their power bills, while people across the aisle are telling us, 'Your power bills are lower.' It's just not true. You know it's not true, but you won't admit it.

Then there's gas. The price of gas is up by 27 per cent. Plenty of people in rural and regional Australia don't have power to their place. They live remotely, so they rely on gas, with a 27 per cent increase in the price of gas. And now we've got state and territory leaders saying: 'We're actually going to force you to have gas in your house so we don't rely on coal-fired power stations. We're going to make you have gas elements in your house.' It's happening in Victoria. It's being floated in New South Wales. They're trying to put more pressure on people in regional and rural Australia by interfering, by entering your house and telling you what to do and how to live. The cost-of-living pressure keeps piling up, and what do we hear from the other side? Nothing—not one word about gas prices increasing by 27 per cent.

Then there's insurance. Insurance premiums are tripling, particularly in regional and remote areas. What is the government doing about this? Nothing. There's no intervention—'That's your problem; that's not our problem. We're going to give you $67 a month to deal with this. This is our big gift to you: $67 to cover the extra $22,000 a year on your mortgage, the increase in your electricity prices, the increase in your gas prices and the increase in your insurance prices, and that $67 will go a long way.'

Then there's petrol. When we were in government, the excise on petrol was 44c. It's now above 49c. On top of that, you have 18c in GST, so it's about 67c. Petrol was cheaper when we were in government and we cut the excise in half during COVID to give punters a break, because we knew they were doing it tough during COVID. And now what is this government doing? Nothing. They're not going to cut the excise in half. They've said so. When you're travelling around the city on the metro or on the trams, with short distances to work and short distances home, you're not concerned about the price of petrol. But in the regions, where you're driving 100 or 150 kilometres to work or you're on the road for work, it makes a huge difference—a massive difference—to what's in your back pocket, to the point where some people say, 'I simply can't do that job anymore, because I can't afford to travel that far.' Yet this government will not cut the excise. Six months, 12 months—give the people a break. Have a look at it. Be genuine. Don't stand up here and say, 'We're giving you $67 a month.' Sixty-seven dollars wouldn't even fill half your tank, and most people in regional areas go through two tanks a week. It's tough. Let's get real. Let's do something that really helps our people.

And then there's wages. According to those on the other side: 'You've never been better than under us. Your wages are going up.' The reality is that people are worse off by $8,000 a year. They're worse off and they know it, and they're telling the members opposite and they're telling the members on our side. But do we hear it from the other side? No. You've never been better off than under Labor, according to them. It is tough out there for these people.

I've heard over the past two days: 'We're giving you cheaper child care.' Well, you can't get into child care in the regions. There are waiting lists of 200 to 300 people. There are police officers and nurses swapping shifts and organising their diaries so they can look after each other's children. That is a fact. And people aren't able to go to work and make more money, because they can't get into child care. As for aged care, apparently in the city, if someone needs to go into aged care, you can just walk up and book them in. 'See you, Nan. We'll be back next week.' Good luck finding a position in aged care in the regions! The delusion that's coming from the other side that people are better off is just unbelievable. That may be the case in your seats, but it's not in the regions, because you don't think about those people in the regions.

Let me talk about telecommunications. What about 28 out of 28 telecommunication towers in the last round? Where did they go? They went to Labor seats.

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