Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Once again we have seen, during question time today, the Albanese Labor government failing to take responsibility for the pain people all around Australia are feeling due to the ever increasing cost-of-living pressures. Such is Labor's disconnect from real people in the real world. This government is forever playing with the numbers, switching them around for their own political gain, and that is a theme I will come back to. It is disgraceful and not lost on everyday mums and dads, who cannot escape their grocery bills, mortgage, rent payments, energy bills and now fuel bills, and the list goes on. People know that it is this incompetent government at work.

Under the watchful eye of the Treasurer, Australia has undergone the biggest fall in living standards anywhere in the developed world. Inflation is higher than any major advanced economy. It's higher than the USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and Japan. On this side of the House, we are committed to restoring Australians standard of living and protecting their way of life. Under Labor, electricity prices are up 32 per cent in the past year alone. Think about that—a third of your bill gone up again in one year. Energy is the economy. We are saying it over and over again because, if we don't understand it, then businesses can't thrive and homes can't keep their lights on, keep their gas heaters on and keep their air conditioners going.

Energy powers industry. It drives transport and makes small businesses not die—forty-one thousand under this government. When energy is affordable and reliable, living standards rise and societies prosper. Data consistently shows elevated energy costs create cascading effects, from immediate household strains to long-term growth impediments. After nearly four years in government, insurance is up 39 per cent, and that's before the hikes we are now hearing about due to the latest conflict in the Middle East. Some farmers are doing it so tough in my electorate from fires and floods that they are under-insuring their farms, which creates a 'higher risk business' environment.

Rents are up, health care is up, food costs are up—basically, whatever we talk about has gone up. Households have burnt through all the fat they might have had in their budgets, and they're cutting back on anything extra for their kids: music lessons, sport and any other extracurricular activities and going out for a meal, and that's if they can continue to service their mortgage or rental property at all. I did hear our previous Labor speaker speaking about child care. It's just tough if you happen to live in childcare deserts, which a lot of Mallee is. Under Labor, out-of-pocket childcare costs are up 11 per cent in the last year alone. But it gets worse.

Labor have added insult to injury in Mallee. We have childcare deserts. It's no more pronounced than in Boort, in the Loddon shire, and in Inglewood, which needs child care too, and I could name several other towns in my electorate. Some families are even travelling 200 kilometres a day to access child care. Victorian Labor promised to build a new child care in Wedderburn, in Loddon shire, in 2023. Please remember that year. But, then, the day before the May 2025 federal election, Labor's candidate for Mallee promised new $5 million funding for new child care in Loddon.

We learned this week, and Loddon Shire Council and residents are furious about this, that the $5 million wasn't for a new child care. It was for Wedderburn, which is as good as built already because it was promised in 2023 under the Victorian government. So it's just kind of like, 'Let us shovel it away, and let us pretend that didn't happen.' The residents of Loddon shire absolutely know it happened. This was a deliberate, dishonest repackaging of an existing promise designed to deceive regional families during an election campaign.

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