Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Every day, the people of Lindsay, in my community, are feeling the very real, growing impact of the failure of the Albanese Labor government to get the cost of living under control. I hear from families, small businesses—sadly, too many small businesses are closing—and renters and mortgage holders across my electorate who tell me they don't know how much more they can take.

For the community of Lindsay, the cost-of-living crisis is no longer something that's temporary. It's not just a phase; it is relentless and it is entrenched. The latest inflation figures tell the story. Australia's annual CPI rose 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to December 2025, which is higher than expected. It's broad based and it's hitting the essentials people in Lindsay simply cannot do without.

We talk about how much things have increased—whether it's housing, electricity, rent, new dwellings, meat and seafood or fruit and vegetables—and, when we talk about food, the increase in food prices is something that really concerns me, particularly when it comes to food security. I think every community across the country has people lining up at food banks like they never have before. This is putting pressure on not only people experiencing homelessness but double-income families. They just can't afford the increases in food prices.

You can't skip eating, you can't skip paying your power bill, and you can't skip your mortgage repayments. This is exactly why inflation is hitting people in my community so hard, and, by the looks of it, if interest rates go up today, it's going to hit people even more. People are being forced to make decisions that they did not anticipate. The choice of whether to put food on the table or to put the lights or heating on is real. It's not just politicians saying these things, because that's what's happening in our communities.

My community was told by this Labor government that the increases would be temporary, and they're seeing it now. They were also promised many things, including that their electricity bills would go down. The hard work of my community to manage their budgets has successfully been undone by a Labor government that has consistently overspent.

Around one in three households in the electorate of Lindsay are mortgage holders. The prospect of another interest rate rise—we're merely hours away now—will fall hardest on working families who are already dedicating a significant share of their income to keeping a roof over their heads. They are not reckless borrowers; they are everyday Australians. They're teachers, they're health workers, they're tradies, and they're small-business owners. They are people who are contributing to our economy and to our community.

Renters are also facing this grim reality. Rents have increased, vacancy rates remain extremely low, and families are being pushed further from their workplaces, schools and home towns. Young Australians are losing confidence that homeownership will be within reach. For many, the great Australian aspiration, that great Australian dream, of owning a home feels increasingly out of reach and out of step with the harsh reality that is facing them.

Small businesses are under extraordinary pressure. Rising energy costs, higher rents, increased insurance premiums and reduced consumer spending are forcing business owners to make difficult choices, and this goes right across the spectrum. You can walk down High Street in Penrith and speak to a cafe owner, and they say the same thing as a manufacturer in heavy industry manufacturing: whether it's high power prices, the cost of having staff or higher rents, it is putting so many good long-term businesses out of business. They're shutting their doors. These pressures demand disciplined economic management.

Economists across the country—people with decades of experience, formal qualifications and real-world economic expertise—have been absolutely clear that the government must rein in spending to bring inflation under control. But what has been the Albanese Labor government's response? It's been to ignore the advice, the good advice, that would get this country back on track. According to the Albanese Labor government, every qualified economist who has worked in the field for years and years is wrong and the only person to listen to is the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who has no formal qualifications in finance and has never worked a day in the field. This is the type of arrogance that is costing Australians deeply.

Nearly four years on, after this Labor government was elected on a broken promise to ease the cost of living—you can't deny that—inflation has remained high; interest rates have continued to rise, which I'm sure we're going to see again this afternoon; and household budgets are under greater strain, leaving less money in Australian pockets. Australians are losing confidence, and they are most definitely losing patience. They're getting angry at this government. The Treasurer has sought to deflect responsibility, continually pointing to global conditions and inherited challenges, but all that Australians want is real action. They want to be able to afford their bills. They want to be able to put food on the table. They want to be able to send their kids to afternoon sport and have a bit of leftover money for the weekend. This is not reality right now.

Australians, as I said, were promised that their power bills would be cut by $275. Instead, they've received higher bills and a price increase of 21½ per cent. Some people in my community are paying over $1,000 more for their power bills than what was promised by the government. They were promised that interest rates would be lower and would stabilise. Instead, families are bracing, as I said, for another rate rise. For everyday Australians, a rate rise is deeply personal. After today I'll be hearing from my community about whether families can remain in their homes, whether small businesses can survive, and whether young Australians can plan for their future. And yet, as these pressures rise, you will not hear a plan of action from the government; you'll hear more excuses, more spin and more deflection—it's something they're very good at.

The pattern of failure does not stop at their lack of action to address the cost of living. It extends to the government's approach to all sorts of issues, including in my portfolio area and online safety—most notably, its much-publicised social media ban for children under 16. This policy was announced with significant fanfare. It was presented as a decisive, world-leading reform designed to protect young Australians from online harm. Parents were told that it would provide reassurance and safety for our youngest Australians, but it's no surprise to anyone that the Albanese Labor government has failed in its execution. In fact, the Prime Minister said, 'Success is a national conversation.' Well, that is not keeping young people safe online. We know that the age verification systems underpinning this ban are deeply flawed. The technology being relied on does not adequately verify age nor identity. It can be easily bypassed. In some cases, facial scans are not meaningfully checked against the user details at all, and, as recently reported, fathers have even been using their own faces for their daughter's accounts and they're not marrying up. Kids are just getting through. The government is saying 4.7 million accounts have been deactivated, but there's no transparency about these figures, how they are calculated or whether kids are in fact offline. This is just another example of the government spinning a story that is not the reality. Whether it is in regard to the cost of living and telling Australians they've never had it better or whether it's saying that kids are now safer online, the PR exercise is very different to the reality that Australian families are facing.

I think we all want to keep families safe. We all want to keep kids safe online, and we all want Australians and their families to have a better life. But the headline policy that looks strong in theory is collapsing for this government. The people of Lindsay—and, I think, all across the country—are not asking for miracles; they're just asking for competence in their government, and they're asking for honesty. The Albanese Labor government campaigned on transparency and people are getting anything but from this government. They're asking for a government that understands the pressures they face and acts and gets on the ground and can see what's happening. They want leadership that is focused on outcomes, not announcements. They deserve a government that recognises the toll that these failures are taking on Australian households, and they're just not getting it from this government.

The people of Lindsay won't be ignored. They've got pretty loud voices, and they elected me to be their representative in this place. I'll keep fighting for them because they deserve better from their government. I'll ensure that this parliament is aware of the government's failings and what they're not doing for the community of Lindsay.

See this speech in context