Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance is the decline of Australia's living standards during the government's cost-of-living crisis, moved by the member for Goldstein, the shadow Treasurer. It is a matter of public importance and not, essentially, a matter of political importance. There's a big difference, because the public are hurting. They are suffering. Whether they're in the gallery or whether they're the parents of the schoolchildren above, they are really doing it tough at the moment. We all know that. I'm sure we all go into our own electorates and we talk—more importantly, perhaps some of us even listen—to the small-business owners and operators and family owned businesses. I'm sure we talk to everyday mums and dads who are struggling with balancing household budgets. I'm sure some of us from regional areas even go as far as talking to farmers and listening to farmers, because they too are struggling. It is really important that we restore our standard of living. It is really important that we protect our way of life. Unfortunately, as parliamentarians—and certainly as the government—it's not happening at the moment.

What is the Labor Party's solution to this? Well, they want to put in more politicians—not better politicians. There is a move that Special Minister of State Senator Don Farrell is considering at the moment to increase the House of Representatives by as many as 24, possibly 28, seats, and the Senate from 12 additional seats to as many as 14 additional seats. That is, in one option, 42 more parliamentarians. We don't need more politicians. We need better politicians, we need better policies, and we simply are not getting that at the moment.

Whilst I appreciate that Labor, as a political endeavour, will talk about yesterday's national accounts figures, they also show—the facts are there—that productivity is in freefall. It's dropped 4.7 per cent on Labor's watch. But what has gone up is the numbers of small businesses which have gone to the wall—more than 40,000 of them. That's not just them closing their doors—that level is about a thousand per day. That is actually them going bankrupt. That is so, so sad. That is terrible, because we know, or we should know, that small business is the backbone of the economy.

Population—we've got 1.9 million more people since Labor came to office. What we really need to do is have a good look at migration. We also need to have a really good look at where we're going to put all of these people who are flooding into our country, because we do have a housing crisis. I know Labor's talking about building 1.2 million more homes—again, good luck with that endeavour. Yes, they are needed, but when we've got the construction industry in freefall at the moment, it's going to be a tough ask.

Speaking of sectors which are in freefall, the trucking industry is doing it very, very tough at the moment. I spoke earlier today to Craig Forsyth, originally from Casino. He's got the Truckin' Life magazine. He will tell you the story about sham contracting, and that is something that I think this government really needs to address. We need a bipartisan summit. Get the unions involved. Get the industry involved. The industry has the solutions. Get the truckies involved.

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