Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for McPherson for his motion on this very important issue. I'm sure that, for all members in this chamber, cost of living and how they are dealing with the crisis are the most important issues for our constituents. I know that, in my own electorate, it's certainly the topic that's most raised with me, and I know that it's biting hard and hurting people harder. Across communities of families, farmers and small businesses, people are being hit from every direction. Fuel prices are surging. Supply has been uncertain. This comes on top of relentless increases in everyday costs—electricity, gas, food, health, education, insurance and rent. At the same time, wages have not been keeping up.

Lyne is one of the lowest income electorates in Australia. People simply do not have the buffers. They don't have the flexibility in their budgets, and they're having to make real sacrifices—skipping essentials, telling their kids that they can't play footy this season, delaying retirement and, in some cases, working longer simply to stay afloat. That is not the Australian promise; that is a failure of economic management.

After several years of this government, Australians have experienced a collapse in living standards. Inflation has remained stubbornly high, and government spending is at levels not seen outside of crisis periods. When government spending fuels inflation, interest rates stay higher for longer. That is why families have endured repeated rate rises and why mortgage holders are going backwards. At the same time, national debt is climbing, productivity is falling, and confidence is weakening. This is not a coherent economic strategy; it's a cycle of higher spending, higher taxes and lower expectations.

Nowhere is this failure more obvious than in housing. Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis, yet the government continues to prioritise demand-side subsidies—schemes that inflate prices—rather than address the real problem, which is supply. We're building fewer homes than we were just a few years ago, while our population has surged. That imbalance is pushing prices higher and locking young Australians out of homeownership, an issue I raised in my first speech. Now, we hear talk of changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. Let me be clear, you cannot tax your way out of a housing shortage. If anything, such changes risks reducing investment and worsening supply constraints.

The real solutions, the ones that are discussed with me in my electorate, are about releasing more land, investing in enabling infrastructure, streamlining planning and environmental approvals, and reducing red tape and green tape, which are driving up costs. In my electorate, families are facing tens of thousands of dollars in upfront regulatory costs before they even start building, and builders are way down too, with local government and state government taxes, and are struggling to find the workers they need. That is a barrier created by government, and it can be fixed by government.

Fuel prices are another pressure point. In regional Australia, fuel is simply not optional; it's essential. It affects everything: groceries, freight, farming and household budgets. Yet we've seen delays, confusion and a lack of urgency in responding to supply pressures and price spikes as a result of the Middle East conflict. The government has been reactive, not proactive. A better approach would include strengthening oversight of fuel supply chains and pricing transparency, including giving the ACCC an explicit antihoarding power, supporting smaller wholesalers and independent service stations, not just major players, to manage price risk; improving fuel security through diversified supply, storage and domestic production; and ensuring regulatory settings allow rapid response in times of disruption. When fuel prices spike, that flows through the entire economy and drives inflation higher still.

Australians do not expect perfection from their government, but they do expect competence. They expect a plan to bring inflation down without crushing growth. They expect housing policies that build homes, not just inflate prices. They expect practical and timely action on fuel costs and supply, and they expect a government that understands the pressures facing regional communities. What we need is a reset in economic policy; fiscal discipline to ease inflationary pressure; a relentless focus on productivity and private sector growth; supply-side reform in housing; a cheaper, better, fairer energy policy that delivers on reliability and affordability; support for small business, not large corporations; and a recognition that regional Australians cannot be an afterthought.

People in Lyne are working harder for less. This is a moment that calls for strong, responsible economic leadership.

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