The member for Forde knows it's Halloween. It's a scary time of year. In fact, it's been a scary four years for Australians under this Labor government. Kids will get out there, with their costumes and bags, and go knocking on doors for tricks or treats. Can I just give a warning to everyone: if you see the Prime Minister coming to knock on your door on Saturday night, we know it's going to be a trick. In fact, he's not just coming for lollies. He's coming for your cost of living because he wants to decrease your standard of living. That's what he's doing. This government has been in costume for four years, making out that they are the champions of the everyday Australian. They want to make sure that everyone is looked after. But, in actual fact, what happens? You look behind the mask, and what is revealed? The true Labor Party, the one that wants to tax you more, the one that wants to spend more, the one that will drive up inflation and the one that leaves the Reserve Bank with very little choice but to put up interest rates. They're not just taking one lolly from the bowl. They are taking the whole bowl, putting it in their bag and then running for the door. That's what this government is doing.

Yesterday, in question time, we saw this classic—what I would describe in Halloween terms as 'blaming of the ghost'—from the Treasurer. It's everyone else's fault except his. It's the Middle East. It's this. It's that. It's even his other cabinet colleagues. But, in fact, what we know is that the Prime Minister yesterday decided to selectively quote the Reserve Bank governor. The Reserve Bank governor, to her credit, was in estimates yesterday, and I just thought I'd read into the record the concluding paragraph that followed what the Prime Minister said. She said this: 'Importantly, though, it's not just these global pressures that are driving inflation in Australia. While they are certainly compounding the inflation problem, we still see inflation arising from domestic capacity pressures.' This is the bit of the story that they don't like to tell over on that side. We know that the Chief Economist of the RBA, Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter, has said government spending is definitely part of the picture. If this Labor government are to try and correct this horror story that is playing out for all Australians, they need to learn to rein in their spending.

What we've seen yesterday is that inflation has jumped to 4.3 per cent, with underlying inflation at 3.6 per cent—all of this miles outside the band of two to three per cent. What does this mean for everyday Australians? Inflation is the rate at which things get more expensive, and it compounds. So, every time there is inflation, it just keeps going up and up and up. That's why I keep hearing from my community that, every time they go to the grocery store, everything seems more expensive. Every time they fill up their car with petrol, it seems more expensive. Every time they pay their private health insurance, it's getting more expensive. All of these costs are going up. That is what inflation is and what it does. Yet the Prime Minister and the Treasurer in March 2025, conveniently just prior to the last election, tried to hoodwink Australians into believing that the worst of this problem was behind us. We all know, now that the mask has been lifted. The truth has been revealed.

This government has absolutely no control over inflation, and the Reserve Bank is having to do the hard jobs for them. That's why we've seen 16 interest rate rises under this government, and we will probably see a 17th on Tuesday. The Treasurer thinks that somehow we get some joy out of that. Treasurer, none of us on this side are getting any joy out of the disastrous way in which you're handling this economy, because it's Australians that are paying. Every single time that this mortgage payment comes out of your bank account, you can thank this Treasurer. The horror story is not just going to play out this weekend. We are seeing the horror story playing out over on that side of the chamber. It's scary.