Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) Share this | Hansard source

Has anyone noticed the two things the government doesn't talk about? They don't talk about productivity, and they don't talk about inflation. They are the two topics that this government has absolutely avoided. The member across there, the member for Bonner, just mentioned a number. That number was 41,000. What do you think Australians might equate that number to? Well, I'm telling you now that it's 41,000 small and family businesses—incomes and livelihoods—that have gone broke since this government came to power. It's a disgraceful number, and the member for Bonner should think about that number that she just spruiked. That's 41,000 families who now do not have a small and family business. They've probably got mortgages that are attached to those businesses that have gone broke and they may have lost their homes as well. Who knows?

Under this government's watch, productivity and inflation are pushing living standards backwards for Australians by 10 per cent. After four years of this Albanese government, Australians have lived through a cost-of-living crisis, a cost-of-doing-business crisis and a household recession. Prices are up. Real wages are down. Australians are working harder for less. While government is getting bigger—much, much bigger—Australians' lives are simply not getting better.

On a per capita basis, our economy is poorer than it was in March 2022. We've gone backwards. According to the latest figures from the OECD, Australians experienced the largest collapse in living standards in the developed world. We have made no progress against the OECD average. We're still down 10 percentage points. That's not just bad luck; it's bad management. We have gone backwards under this government, and Australians know that. They feel it. They know it when they come out of a supermarket and they've only got half the amount in their bag that they had the last time they went shopping as inflation keeps pushing up prices. Real wages today are more than two per cent lower than when Labor took office. No wonder Australians are feeling poorer—because they simply are. The Reserve Bank expects real wages to continue falling through this year. Productivity, as I said, is down 4.7 per cent since Labor came to office. That's in four short years. This is our economic potential in freefall.

But what has grown? What is it that has grown? The government has grown. The latest national accounts show public sector demand growing twice as fast as the private sector—0.9 per cent versus 0.4 per cent in the December quarter. It's the second quarter in a row that government spending has outpaced the private economy. It's that spending into the economy that the government keep doing because they're addicted to spending your money that's pushing inflation up and making it hard for every Australian. Public demand is now at a record 29 per cent of GDP. The Treasurer says inflation has been driven by private demand. That claim is in tatters. Independent economists have made it clear that, when the government take up more room in the economy, which is what they're doing—remember those jobs numbers are bigger in the government—it leaves less space for families and small businesses, it pushes up inflation, it keeps interest rates higher for longer and it makes it harder for Australians to get ahead.

Inflation has risen again, to 3.8 per cent. But Labor says inflation has turned the corner. Labor says Australians are better off and life's never been better. Labor say they are not coming after more of your money. Australians know that, when Labor run out of money, they come after more of their money. Taxes are 37.3 per cent higher than when Labor came to office. Real household disposable income per capita is down 3.4 per cent. Nearly 1.9 million people have been added to the population in just four years, without the homes or the infrastructure or services to match. But Labor will blame increasing inflation on whatever it can. The conflict involving Iran is going to add further instability to global markets, for sure. But, even before that conflict began, inflation was rising, interest rates were rising and living standards were failing. Labor will make all kinds of excuses. They'll make any excuse under the sun. They'll blame anybody but themselves for their bad economic management.

Over here on this side we stand for lower, simpler, fairer taxes and tax reform that rewards work and hard effort. We stand for restoring control of our migration program, protecting our way of life and restoring our standard of living. (Time expired)

See this speech in context