Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When you have households across Australia paying 15 per cent more for food; 15 per cent more for health, with bulk-billing rates going from 88 per cent to 77 per cent, so down 11 per cent; 19 per cent more for housing—that's if you're lucky enough to get a roof over your head, either through ownership or rent; paying 37 per cent more for insurance; and nearly 40 per cent more for power, for electricity, then you know that something is seriously wrong with the government of the day. And something is dreadfully, horribly wrong with the administration of Australia right at this point in time.

Instead of coming in here and crowing about what they've achieved in six months, Labor should be tucking their tails between their legs, going back to their electorates and listening to the small-business community, listening to Mr and Mrs Average, listening to everyday, ordinary Australians who are hurting, who are crippled with the debt foisted upon them by this government.

Indeed, when you talk about insurance, you've got a complete market failure there, a complete collapse. You have got in some of those river communities, where they have been put in place thanks to coalition infrastructure spending—some of those opposite have no idea what I'm talking about—levee banks that were not there before. And yet people are still paying higher and higher insurance rates. There has to be a conversation with the insurance industry as to why this is so.

Then, of course, you've got legitimate businesses next to legitimate tobacco sellers who cannot even get insurance because of the fear that insurance companies have of those legitimate cigarette sellers being firebombed by the illegal gangs that are using it as their MO for making money. This is costing the government, through illegal tobacco excise, millions upon millions of dollars, and something has to give.

I feel for those state police officers who are pulling up people on the Hume Highway all of the time, and then—what do we do? Well, we just let them back into society. This has got to be something that the government should take in hand, because it's costing revenue—millions of dollars.

We've got bailout after bailout. We had it at Whyalla with $2.4 billion, Nyrstar with $135 million, Glencore with $600 million and now—Tomago. Tomago, where the Prime Minister stood and said, 'This is the vision for a future made in Australia.' And now that aluminium smelter is, potentially, facing bankruptcy. Well, if that is a future made in Australia, then Labor has to go back to the drawing board as to what it is doing to charge those high energy costs that companies simply can't afford. It'll probably be a boon for the minister for climate action and energy, the member for McMahon, because it will take 11 per cent of New South Wales's power supply, and that will therefore reduce emissions.

But is this the way we want to go? Do we want to start sending everything manufacturing and factory-wise and industrial-wise offshore? Well, that's not the Future Made in Australia that Labor purports to represent.

Of course, it's not just that. Every time people go and fill up their cars, they're paying through the nose at the petrol bowser, and they're paying through the nose at the cash-out register in their local supermarket, because of the higher costs foisted upon them by this government, and something has to give. We can't afford to keep saddling future generations with the costs that we are putting on them. And if Labor thinks that this is a novel exercise, celebrating their achievements after six months, well, I tell you what, there's a lot more work to do.

Yes, while there have been some good little achievements, the cost overall to everyday, ordinary Australians is hurting. It's hurting them because they can't put a roof over their heads. It's hurting them because they can't find a house to rent. It's hurting them because every quarter, when they open that energy bill, they should see the Prime Minister or the member for McMahon's face staring back at them, because they're the ones forcing the prices up 40 per cent over and above what they were when Labor came into power in May 2022. That was a disastrous day for this nation, and this is a disastrous six months for this nation as well.

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