I rise to speak on this matter of public importance today as raised by the shadow treasurer in relation to the government's addiction to spending, to forcing higher inflation and interest rates and to the consequences associated with that. I'll say that it is refreshing that there are some members of the Labor backbench who are prepared to break rank from the Labor leadership and actually agree with something that the coalition has been saying for a long time: government spending does need to be reduced. We've just heard it from the member for Deakin. We've heard it from the member for Moreton. This is after months of her saying: 'Oh, where are you going to cut? What are you going to do for the opposition?' Then more recently this week, she's turned around and said, 'Oh, yes, we need to throw everything we can as a government at reducing government expenditure.' It would be good counsel for them to have a chat to the Treasurer or to the Prime Minister, who don't seem to align with those views in their actions.

There was a lot of talk today and in the lead-up to today by members opposite who seem to talk about the events overseas. I think there's no-one who's denying that the events overseas have relevance, but what we are denying is the fact that they are entirely the cause of this inflation mess that Australia is in. We have had 16 interest rate rises. Inflation is now at 4.3 per cent as of today. We are seeing the consequences every single day across our electorates. And I'd hate to be a member of the Labor government right now, especially a backbench member, going and speaking to their constituents, because if they're genuinely engaging with their constituents, if they're genuinely engaging with small businesses, I'm sure the feedback is not positive.

A whole heap of questions were put to the Treasurer and to the Prime Minister today in question time, and in every single response to those questions—which were related to this inflation mess fuelled by the government's addiction to spending—the Prime Minister or the Treasurer spoke about the fact that there are things happening overseas and that this is part of a broader issue. But if you look at Australia, if you look at where our inflation sits—and I did say it's 4.3 per cent as of today; it's gone up again—we're actually somewhat of an outlier compared with the rest of the world. If you look at countries like Japan, 2.1 per cent is actually 2.2 percentage points down. Singapore is at 2.2 per cent, South Korea at 2.9, France at 3.1 and Canada at 3.1. So we are an outlier. That's not to say that those countries are not going through the same international events that we are. But it does say that there is something homegrown about this inflation crisis, and the Treasurer and those opposite would do well to admit that and to act upon it.

We've had the Reserve Bank of Australia actually say there is a domestic link. The Reserve Bank governor said, 'Inflation has been driven by domestic capacity pressures.' And they said that the Middle East is in addition to those domestic capacity pressures. They've said that domestic spending and investment have been stronger than expected and that we are consuming more than we can supply as an economy. One in every four dollars that is spent in this economy is spent by the government. That is concerning on so many different levels. On Sunday the Reserve Bank's Sarah Hunter said that government spending is definitely part of the picture.

There is an alternative view. The coalition this week outlined a number of different measures we would take to the next election. These are things this government can actually address now in terms of a budget savings package, which would save the Australian taxpayer $31.3 billion in total. Those opposite said we can have a discussion about what we want to cut. Well, here we go. We've been speaking about it. We're yet to hear whether the government is actually going to engage in this. We've got climate and net zero programs at $9.4 billion. We've got corporate subsidies and industry incentives at $7.3 billion. There are the failed housing programs and incentives, at $4.7 billion. Some of the welfare and NDIS eligibility changes would be $2 billion. And in illicit tobacco enforcement there's some projected additional revenue for another $7.9 billion if the government came to the table. But it's also about growing the economy. Something we have seen is that this government is not working for the people to generate the conditions, to generate wealth and in doing so support more government revenue.