Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We just saw a question time where, question after question, the government refused to answer questions that Australians want to know the answer to or already know the answer to. We heard the Treasurer refuse to answer the question as to what the cost of the tax breaks is when he goes to boardroom lunches at Qantas, Woolworths and Coles. He either didn't know the answer or he doesn't want to answer the question.

But I've got to tell you that, in terms of answering questions, the most egregious failure of all in that question time was from the Prime Minister himself, because he could not answer the question about how much the cost of food has gone up for Australian families since Labor came to power. He couldn't answer that question, yet he is out there every single day telling Australians how good they have it under his prime ministership. They've never had it so good.

I am very happy to give the answer to that question, because food, since Labor has come to power, has gone up by 12 per cent. But it doesn't stop there, let me tell you. The cost of rent has gone up by 17 per cent. The underlying cost of electricity has gone up by 32 per cent. There's no price reduction coming to Australians from that side of politics over there. Gas has gone up by 36 per cent. Insurance and financial services have gone up by 18 per cent, health has gone up by 10 per cent and education has gone up by 11 per cent, and it keeps going!

It's not over yet. In fact, tomorrow, on Wednesday, we will see the employee living cost index come out. This is the cost that working families have to pay for items, services and goods. Since Labor came to power, they have so far gone up by almost 18 per cent. We'll find out on Wednesday where that's at, but the one thing I can absolutely guarantee this parliament is that it's going up, and it's going to keep going up under this government.

The truth is that under this government Australians are going backwards faster than they ever have before. We heard during question time that the standard of living of Australians has fallen by 8.7 per cent since Labor came to power. The Prime Minister and Treasurer like to tell us that it's not that bad—it's not that bad; in some kind of parallel universe, it could be worse! Well, let's look at a few parallel universes, like other countries in the world. It turns out that there is no peer country in the world—there is no other OECD country—where the standard of living has gone down as much as it has in Australia. They're the relevant measures—the worst in the world. Australia is not used to being the worst in the world. This is not something we revel in. We like to be the best in the world. But, I tell you what, when those opposite are in power, we are absolutely the worst in the world. The other comparison, the other benchmark, that I think is important when we look at our standard of living is: have we ever seen this before? Since the data on the standard of living was first collected, it turns out we have never seen a collapse in Australians' living standards like we have seen under this Labor government.

They are numbers. But what really counts is what we see on the ground. Every member of the opposition is out on a regular basis in their communities talking to people and seeing the pain of Australians under this government. I was in Queanbeyan just yesterday with our wonderful candidate for Eden-Monaro, Jo van der Plaat, and we were with Father Michael at St Benedict's Community Centre. We were talking to Father Michael about what he is seeing on the ground in his community centre, where he provides meals for people in the region who are doing it tough. He is seeing numbers that he has never seen before. On the weekend, he provided 60 families with meals, families who simply can't make ends meet anymore. It's a tough time for someone, whether it's in Queanbeyan or any other part of Australia, when they have to go into a place like this, a wonderful place like this, and say, 'I can't feed my family anymore.' The stigma they feel, the frustration that Australians feel, because they can't feed their families is truly, truly galling. Wherever I go around Australia, I try to visit similar sorts of community centres, and I'm seeing this wherever I go. I know many on our side of this House—and, I hope, on the other side of the House—are making similar visits and seeing that pain wherever we go, as I saw at Bennies with Father Michael yesterday.

We're seeing similar pain in the business community. It's small businesses we worry about most because we are seeing record levels of insolvencies—27,000 since Labor came to power. Those opposite couldn't care less about small businesses. Most of them have never worked in a business. The Treasurer himself says that the six months he spent in the private sector were truly awful. He really disliked it. He couldn't get back to the public sector fast enough. But we are seeing this extreme pain in the business sector. Of those 27,000 failures, we know 4,000 were in the hospitality sector. But those opposite show no concern for that—no concern whatsoever for that. We are seeing the pain that Labor's homegrown inflation is inflicting on those businesses. To give you an example, 45-year-old Kuldeep Singh is running a cafe in his region. He said:

… We're just surviving and it's very hard to make a profit …

… interest rates aren't coming down, inflation is too high and people aren't spending much money. The cost of living is crazy. I don't think Labor is doing enough for small businesses so I do hope they don't win the next election.

Well, we're with you, Kuldeep. We're with you. We're with you on that. We all see the pain that small-business owners are under. For families, as kids go back to school, it all becomes very real. They have to buy the uniforms, they have to buy the pencils, they have to pay those bills that are necessary to get the kids back to school, and we see what a struggle it is for so many families.

Nowhere is it more painful than for Australians with a mortgage. There's no relief for those Australians who have paid, let's face it, an extra $50,000 on average on their mortgage since Labor came to power. That's $50,000 extra over and above what they had expected to pay since Labor came to power. That has to come from after-tax income. Finding that kind of money is nigh on impossible for families. That's why we're seeing them crack open the piggy bank. We're seeing savings falling to low levels. In fact, there's almost no net savings left in our economy right now. Australians are working extra hours and having to cut back not only on luxuries but on essentials, and that continues.

We live in the best country in the world. There's nothing that can't be fixed in our economy by having a change of government. There is a better way. We can get back on track. By getting back to basics, we can take our economy to a far better place than what we have seen in the last 2½ years of this Labor government. That means beating inflation by reigning in wasteful spending that those opposite can't help themselves with—36,000 additional Canberra based public servants. Today we see this Treasurer using the Public Service as a political weapon in the lead-up to an election. That's why he needed extra public servants. We know why he needed extra public servants—to play political games. We can have cheaper energy by ensuring we have a balanced mix of the full range of fuel technologies, including gas and nuclear. We can have affordable homes by investing in the infrastructure that will unlock new housing supply in this country, in contrast to the absolute and abject failure of those opposite even to reach their own housing supply targets. We also need to make sure we get the balance right between housing supply and immigration. That balance is crucial and has been completely out of whack in the time those opposite have been in power. Australians are poorer than when Labor came to power. We cannot afford another three years of Labor.

See this speech in context