Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to his recent newsletter, in which he advises people on how to reduce grocery prices. Amongst the Treasurer’s top 10 tips are: shop for specials—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer will resume his seat. Those on my right and some on my left are not assisting.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I go to the Treasurer’s tips for reducing grocery prices: shop for specials, compare prices, shop during quiet periods, challenge the store manager—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat. When the House comes to order we will continue.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The fifth tip is:

Ask for products not on the shelf.

Can the Treasurer advise whether his 10 top tips for reducing grocery prices will form the basis of the government’s ‘grocery watch’ stunt?

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Whilst the last part of the question brought in too much argument, the Treasurer will respond to the question.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition just demonstrated how terminally out of touch every one of those people over there is—absolutely terminally out of touch.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just look at the body language. He thinks you’re a dud.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Dickson is warned! The Treasurer has the call. The question has been asked; the Treasurer is responding.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have conducted a price watch in my electorate since 1993—well over a decade—and, do you know what, it is one of the ways I stay in touch with my electorate, absolutely, and it is how people like you get so out of touch; it is how those opposite get so out of touch. They do not have a clue what life is like around the kitchen table. They have not got the faintest idea. And it is because they are so out of touch that they brought in Work Choices. Only somebody terminally out of touch could bring in Work Choices to rip away at the wages and working conditions of Australian working families. They have learnt nothing at all. They have demonstrated they are completely out of touch with the lives of average Australians. If they think that the average Australian who goes shopping thinks that those tips are ludicrous or laughable, they have not got a clue about what is going on in Australia.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek to table the government’s ‘grocery watch’ scheme.

Leave not granted.