Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Back in reality, it's important that we stand up and speak out about the real challenges Australians are living with cost-of-living pressure. I just heard a speech from the member for Maribyrnong which truly was the very definition of audacity and denial. We have a government that simply does not seem to understand that it is pouring debt petrol onto the inflation fire. This is not based on some sort of academic assessment; it is what Australians are living right now. They're waking up, dropping their kids off to school and finding their way to work. They're going to the supermarket at the end of the day, and every day, when they check out their items, they are experiencing fewer goods going into that red basket—fewer goods that they're able to buy with their dollar. That is how Australians are living right now.

Do not underestimate how lived this reality is. More and more parents are going to supermarkets and having to put items back on the shelf. They're having to tell the person at the supermarket checkout that they can't afford the total bill, and they're having to take items out of their basket. I understand from some of the research that has been done that, increasingly, Australians are choosing to go through self-service checkouts because it's a way to maintain their dignity by not having to tell other people that they can't afford the full cost of the items in their basket.

This government's answer is hubris and arrogance, saying, 'Inflation is under control. You're all living in la-la land. We've got nothing to do with it,' despite the fact that it is pouring money into the economy and fuelling the inflation problem. They are pouring debt petrol onto the inflation fire, and Australians are having to live with higher inflation and higher interest rates. Those opposite are engaging in a form of denialism in this chamber and this parliament, and it's truly sickening. It shows they don't understand what they're doing. It's not just a matter of fiscal recklessness, though it is that; it's an active engagement in denial as they actively fuel inflation in this country.

You just need to look at the simple stats. Since the Albanese government was elected, insurance premiums have gone up 39 per cent; energy costs, up 38 per cent; rent, up 22 per cent; health insurance, up 18 per cent; education costs, up 17 per cent; and food costs, up 16 per cent. It's not just a problem for households, though that is very serious; it has a dramatic impact on small businesses, leading to the current small-business crisis. We've had record small-business insolvencies. Forty-one thousand small businesses have gone insolvent since the election of the Albanese government. Last year we had record small-business insolvencies, and we are currently on track to have a higher number of small-business insolvencies this year than we had last year.

At every point, all we've heard from this government is a denial that it has something to do with it, even though the Reserve Bank governor has made it explicitly clear that public expenditure directly contributes to private demand. Every time the government says, 'Oh, it's just private demand; it's got nothing to do with us,' it's actually the government pouring debt petrol onto the inflation fire. They're doing it through things like public sector employment, or indirect public sector employment. Eight out of 10 jobs are being created by direct and indirect public expenditure, while there's a complete crisis in private sector employment.

This denial is not the act of a responsible government. It is not the act of a government that understands what it's doing, and it's certainly not the act of a Treasurer who is in charge of his portfolio. To his credit, the Prime Minister has now turned around and betrayed the Treasurer, saying to his various ministers: 'You have to get spending out of your portfolios, because the government is now contributing to the inflation pressure that Australians are living.' The Prime Minister now has his thumb once again on the Treasurer, who simply seems unwilling or unable to act to do his job, both to keep inflation down and to drive the competitive reforms that Australia needs. But the people who are experiencing the consequences of this are the Australian people. They are living higher interest rates, higher inflation, higher rents and, of course, higher costs at the supermarket checkout, and they are going to continue to be punished until this government is honest with the Australian people that its solutions are actually the drivers of the problem.

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