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

The last speaker started with a question: 'What is it that you want to cut out of the federal budget?' No. 1: the $15 billion that the Labor Party gave to organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. I absolutely want to get rid of public money being given to organised crime. That should not be up for debate, but under the Albanese Labor government, they just keep doling out the cash to organise crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel, and the reason they do it is that they actually get a little bit on the side. The second thing is NDIS corruption. That program is there to support the most vulnerable in the community, who in many cases cannot stand up for themselves. The NDIA themselves have identified that up to 10 per cent of the $50 billion program goes towards fraud. I absolutely want to cut out the heart of that corruption. That is not in dispute, so I'm happy to answer this question any day of the week. But this just goes to the rotten heart of the Albanese government's approach to managing the problems of inflation.

Think about the reality of so many Australians: only a few years ago, they might have paid a couple of hundred bucks at the supermarket and walked out with a full trolley; now, increasingly, they're not even filling a red basket. Increasingly, when I speak to people, I hear how people go deliberately to the self-service checkouts because they know that, if they go to the self-service checkout and they can't afford everything, they can reverse the system without having to talk to a person. That's how challenging the lived reality of inflation in Australia is today—rising rents and rising bills, particularly at the supermarket checkout—and they have a tone-deaf government. When a small-business owner is struggling to make ends meet, what does the small-business minister say to that former small-business owner? 'Maybe you were dodgy.'

This is the most despicable and arrogant government I've ever seen. They pull tricks left, right and centre. You just need to look at what they did with their trickster approach to energy subsidies before the last election, where they promised that they would cut electricity bills by $275. Nobody believes that anymore. They did then take money from the taxpayer and give it back to Australians, to the level of $300, so they could claim that electricity bills had gone down by $300 and they'd delivered on their promise, but what did they do? They borrowed from the future and fuelled inflation. They keep pouring debt petrol on the inflation fire in this country, and that's why Australians are paying higher costs and higher rents. And it's not just households; it's also small businesses.

The jig is up. The Reserve Bank has made it clear that public expenditure is driving private demand. As a consequence, we now have a problem where inflation is letting rip through the Australian economy, and Australians are within its trajectory. You just need to look at some simple stats. After nearly four years of Labor's complete recklessness and mismanagement, pouring petrol on the inflation fire, Australians are paying more for almost everything. Insurance is up 39 per cent, energy is up 38 per cent, rents are up 22 per cent, health is up 18 per cent, education is up 17 per cent and food is up 16 per cent.

But do you know what's really up? It's the return on investment that the CFMEU made to the Labor Party. They made a $1.5 million donation in Victoria and they got a 10,000-fold return through $15 billion of public money, which then went through to organised crime. Every single member on the Labor side is tainted by that legacy, and they should be ashamed of themselves. That's public money. That's taxpayers' money. More importantly, that money is borrowed from the future and is fuelling inflation today.

Under Labor you pay multiple times over. You pay through higher costs and higher inflation, which means you live a lower standard of living. You pay because they're paying through debt, which means that that's tomorrow's taxes. And you pay because your children and your grandchildren are going to live with the legacy of this Labor government. With cockiness and hubris, the Treasurer struts around thinking he has all of this under control, and the gaggle of Labor members get up and spin their message in the hope that somehow their constituents will be fooled. Their constituents are now living the consequences of Labor's inflation agenda. It's an active inflation agenda to pour debt petrol on the inflation fire. Australians won't stand for it, and I can assure you at the next election we are going to show you the door.

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