Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that Australia's industrial relations system has become too complex, too rigid and weighted towards big institutional interests at the expense of workers, small businesses and productivity;

(2) recognises that:

(a) the Government's industrial relations changes have replaced flexibility and fairness with confusion and compliance;

(b) the Government's energy policies have driven up power bills for shops, cafes, workshops and family enterprises; and

(c) small and family businesses are being forced to work longer hours for less return, while competing against government-subsidised sectors and ever increasing compliance costs; and

(3) affirms that the Opposition stands with private enterprise and small and family-owned businesses because their aspiration, innovation and entrepreneurship are central to Australia's economic future.

Australians are poorer today than they were this time last week. In between, they have copped yet another interest rate rise. Unfortunately, by this time next year, they are going to be poorer still because the everyday Australian will experience the price of everything going up even further this year. They will be experiencing higher interest rates this year. They will be experiencing higher taxes that they have to pay this year. Meanwhile, their real wages will be declining this year, and their living standards will continue to erode.

Australians are hurting right now, in particular younger Australians. I'm talking about Australians who might be in their late 20s and their 30s in particular—families who are trying to feed not just their own mouths but the mouths of kids. People are working their tails off every single day so that they can ensure there is food on the table and making really hard choices and trade-offs about what they can and can't afford for their family. A lot of these young people are either saving to buy a home or they're struggling to pay off a mortgage. In the real world out there, beyond the walls of this parliament, young Australians are feeling the pain, and they know, unfortunately, that this year it will only get worse.

This is a direct consequence of a poorly managed Australian economy—an economy which is seeing inflation driven up as a direct consequence of the biggest spending government in 40 years outside of the pandemic. In this financial year alone, this government is spending an extra $50 billion on discretionary measures. We don't deny the right of any government to prioritise its spending. But with that right should come a commensurate responsibility to find room in the budget to pay for it. Again, everyday families do this. They make those trade-offs. If they want a child to do extracurricular sport, theatre, dance or whatever it is and they don't have the money to pay for it, they might cut back on the take-outs or a couple of days of the holiday they were hoping for. These are the normal financial decisions that are discussed around kitchen tables. It is not too much for the Australian people to ask that the same discipline be applied in this place by the Treasurer and this government to keep the books in check. But that is not happening.

Last week, we saw an increase in interest rates. The Treasurer suggested it had nothing to do with public demand—in other words, government spending. By Friday, of course, you had the Reserve Bank governor making it very clear that it did have something to do with public demand. By Sunday, the Treasurer was saying that the last national accounts were suggesting that the growth in private demand was higher than in public demand, but in fact it was the opposite.

We can talk all about the stats. We can talk all about economic figures. But where the rubber hits the road is out in real Australia, which is why we continue to call on this government to do something that everyday Australians do at home: live within your means. That starts with introducing some rules as to how you contain your spending in the budget. This isn't too much to ask, can I say. Every single treasurer since Peter Costello, who introduced the Charter of Budget Honesty, has had a set of rules to control spending, except the treasurer of this government. The more this government spends, butted up against the speed limit of the economy, the more prices go up. When prices go up, interest rates go up and real wages go down. This has been felt in real Australia, and that is why we have to keep raising this issue with this government.

See this speech in context