I actually agree with the member for New England that super is Australians' money. It is not a national asset, as the government wishes it to be. It is actually people's money and it's there for their determination. We know that under legislation Australians can already access their super in times of hardship and difficulty. The problem I have with this amendment for the Australians who are doing it tough right now is it does nothing to improve their access to super. What it does do is actually let the Treasurer off the hook. Australians are doing it so tough right now because of the Treasurer's inflation and spending addiction. If we increase the number of people who can then take super as they see fit under this legislation, what we're actually going to do is let the Treasurer and the government off on the problems of their inflation and spending addiction, and we're going to let the Treasurer stay addicted to spending more money and continuing to increase the hardship for the Australian community. I think that would be a disaster. It won't be any good for the people who withdraw their super. It will actually make it even harder for all Australians to get ahead. It's one of the basic truisms of inflation. Inflation doesn't hit anybody specifically. It hits everybody in the most catastrophic way.

Small businesses in this nation now are struggling. They are barely able to keep their heads above water. What we have is a government that is continuing to spend. We don't have a cost-of-living crisis; we have a cost-of-government crisis. I don't want to make it any easier for this Treasurer to keep on with his addiction. I want to make sure that Australians have relief, and the only way we're going to be able to achieve that is not by increasing access, which is already provided for in the legislation. What we're going to end up with is a situation where we let the government off the hook and somehow people have a short-term reprieve and the only consequence they're going to be left with is continued punishment and pain from this government and its spending addiction.

This is the problem with the Albanese economic model and the economic model that operates under this government. It stokes inflation, it taxes inflation and it spends inflation. Making sure that Australians have access to be able to financially support themselves is corroded by the impact of inflation every step of the way. Until we get the government to control its spending addiction, Australians will continue to suffer under this government. Australians will continue to have higher costs when they go to the supermarket. They're going to pay more and get less whether they have access to their super or not. Small businesses are going to continue to have rising energy bills. They're going to have rising rents. They're going to have rising insurance premiums. They're going to continue to experience the cost of rising wages to try and keep up with the pressures of inflation, and, the more that happens, the more the government will continues to win.

Inflation continues to outstrip wages. Inflation continues to take away from the wealth of Australians. So many small businesses and so many Australian households are struggling and drowning under the pressure of inflation right now under the Albanese government. It's not because of an accident; it's by design. The government has an economic model that seeks to send Australians under financial water, and it gets to increase its tax take of the hard work, savings and sacrifice of Australians. I don't want to give this Treasurer some sort of green light. I don't want to give this Prime Minister a buck pass or the opportunity to move on. We have to—